Violence Against Children in School Learning Process in Acheh

Observing a great deal of violence against children that occurs in educational institutions has made us realize that, in fact, the violence experienced by children has already been greatly widespread. Not only in the household and in the community, but the violence has also been found in a number of educational institutions in Aceh. Educational institutions are supposed to guide students to have good personal behavior, mindset, and character. Yet, in reality, the violence occurred within educational institutions has tarnished the spirit and purpose of the education itself. It has even distanced the students from the expected educational goals. Based on these problems, the study was focused to address several issues on: the factors causing violence against children in schools, the types of violence against children in schools, and the strategies and efforts of the Government of Aceh and the school to address the issue of violence in the school environment. This study was a field study using the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample consisted of 21 public/Islamic elementary schools (SD/MI), public/Islamic junior high schools (SMP/MTs), public/Islamic senior high schools (SMA/MA), and integrated boarding schools in Aceh. Data were obtained through focus group discussions (FGD), in-depth interviews, and questionnaires. The respondents included students, parents, teachers, police, community leaders, religious leaders, NGOs, and academics. Findings showed that a number of factors have caused the violence acts, among others: Schools had no standard operational and procedures (SOP) in handling problematic children, there was a mindset among teachers that the use of violence was still an effective method in educating the students, conflict issue has also influenced the way to educate children, both by the teachers and the parents, and also the violence legacy (culture of violence) in educational institutions. Generally, the forms of violence in educational institutions in Aceh which often happened and were experienced by the children (students) were more dominant on the aspect of physical abuse compared to the psychological abuse and sexual abuse. The emergence of various forms of violence to children (students) in schools has received serious attention from the Government of Aceh, the government of district/city and the school itself. A number of policies, regulations and programs have been formulated by the government to anticipate and prevent such violence. The schools have also established mechanisms and procedures for handling the children, improved the management and governance of the schools in order to create shared responsibility in taking care the children, publicized and socialized the school rules to the children and their parents as well as the society.