The campaign is protecting millions of children around the world!

Two years after the launch of Learn Without Fear, 390 million children are now protected from violence in schools due to new legislation which has been developed around the world, banning corporal punishment, bullying and sexual violence in schools. This great success is due to the dedication of Learn Without Fear campaigners, who have been calling for these important changes.  

To mark the anniversary of the campaign we are launching a report showing the progress and success of the campaign to date. We are also launching new research which reveals the enormous economic and social cost of violence in schools.

The Learn Without Fear campaign, currently active in 44 countries, has been reducing violence against children in schools by changing behaviour as well as legislation, through a variety of methods: 

• Nearly 20,000 teachers have been trained in non-violent discipline techniques
• 100,000 family and community members have been trained on a child’s right to a violence free existence
• Nearly 600,000 children have taken part in campaign activities
• 94 million people have been reached with the campaign messages, through radio, television and theatre productions.

The campaign will build on the progress to date and will continue to aim towards a world where children to not need to fear going to school.  As such, we reiterate our calls to governments to introduce and, or enforce legislation banning violence in schools and to invest in teacher training to promote positive discipline technique.  

Violence in schools is costing billions of dollars

Research, carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), found children who experience violence at school are likely to earn less, are in greater need of healthcare and in the long-term will contribute less to their countries’ economies.  It concludes violence in schools affects the economic development of countries and is costing children their futures and keeping them poor. 

We argue that when it comes to violence in schools, prevention pays, governments need to invest now to stop violence, not just to protect the rights of children but to protect their countries’ economic development.  We call on all governments to recognise this reality and fund violence prevention methods urgently.

What you can do now!

One of the most important ways to prevent violence is to ensure incidents are reported so perpetrators are held to account. What would you do if you witnessed violence? Check out our new interactive cartoon and see the impact of your action. 

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