By Binta Jaiteh
School authorities have been reminded of their rights as they are having legitimate rights to sue any irresponsible parents if realizing that their child, ward or student being harassed sexuality.
Reminding them of this right during a training program focused on child marriage and female genital mutilation held in Janjangbureh, Central River Region (CRR) was Kajali Sonko, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare.
The training brought together teachers, cluster monitors and education officers from the region.
DPS Sonko disclosed that some parents does not mind or observe the affairs of their children to know when to know their situations and when to intervene, while some of the headmasters, when some situations arise, will say the situation is a family matter.
According to him, “the law has given you the rights to report as a third party if you see any crime. Report it immediately, because the law has mandated you to report any crime based on legal evidence needed for the process,” he emphasised.
He said this is one of the key milestones to protect children at an early age, recognizing the fact that a lot of issues are happening in schools.
However, we opened new windows not only on trainings but the process must continue to engage them in protecting these children.
“There are steps in addressing this situation that is the enactment of the children act and sexual offenses act of 2013,” he stated.
Among things hindering punishing perpetrators as pointed out include withdrawal of reported cases probably because of lack of evidence and it is now becoming tradition.
According to him “we blame judges forgetting that every statement should follow with evidence.”
He however thanked UNICEF for funding the training program.
Sainey Cham, monitoring and evaluation officer at Women’s Bureau also made some remarks on the two-day program.
She reiterated that the training was funded by UNICEF to engage authorities including teachers, cluster monitors and even those who are within the education ground in the two regions – URR and CRR.
Mr Jallow representing Region 5 as well commended the Ministry of Basic and Secondary for this initiative.
