Implementation of the Child Protection and Anti-Bullying Policies in Sdo-Quirino: A Basis for Developing a Contextualized Child Protection Program
Keywords:
anti-bullying, child protection, contextualized policyAbstract
INTRODUCTION
Child abuse and bullying are among the nation's most serious concerns, with thousands of cases reported every year. This study was conducted to evaluate and describe the implementation of child protection and anti-bullying policies in the Division of Quirino which will be used as a basis in developing a contextualized child protection program.
METHODS
The descriptive quantitative type of research method was utilized to describe and assess the child protection policies of the Schools Division Office of Quirino. The researchers chose the twenty (20) elementary and twenty (20) secondary schools in the Schools Division of Quirino as their respondent schools. These schools were chosen per the number of abuse and bullying incidents they have reported in the school years 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.
RESULTS
The analysis of the data revealed that the majority of the schools surveyed are categorized as small schools. Records show that there are 256 reported bullying incidents and 69 child abuse cases despite majority of the schools have complete policy being implemented in terms of the provisions on child abuse, provisions on bullying, student code of conduct, and referral mechanisms; and full participation in terms of information dissemination on child protection, raising awareness on child protection, drafting the child protection policy currently being implemented, responding to cases of bullying within the school, and responding to cases of child abuse within the school.
DISCUSSIONS
With this, it is recommended that authorities should develop a contextualized child protection program in the Division of Quirino to address the different areas of the child protection and highlighting the policies in terms of the student code of conduct and feedback mechanisms and devise an action plan considering the activities provided in this study.
