Unicef Vanessa Tobin Endorsement For I Am Sam Foundation Teacher Sam Rayla Melchor Santos

MESSAGE
(To be delivered by Vanessa Tobin, UNICEF Country Representative

during the Educators Forum on Walk for Life Campaign
on November 12, 2010 at McKinley Hill International School and
Leadership Academy for Children )
May I congratulate the McKinley Hill International School and Leadership

Academy for Children and I Am S.A.M. Foundation, Inc. and Sam [Rayla
Melchor Santos], its Founder and President, for organizing this
Educators Forum on Walk for Life Campaign Against Human
Trafficking: Stand Up for the Rights of the Child. We are elated to have
a growing number of advocates and champions for the rights of the
child particularly from private education sector. Indeed, education
plays a very crucial role in fulfilling not only the childs rights to be
educated but also their rights to be healthy, to be given opportunities for
play and leisure, to be protected from harm and abuse, to express their
views freely, and to participate in decision-making according to their
evolving capacities.
This event is very timely as the whole world will be celebrating Universal
Childrens Day on November 22.
UNICEF Philippines has been in the forefront supporting the government
in the fulfilment of the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child
(UNCRC). Specifically, through the Sixth Country Program for Children,
UNICEF continues to expand advocacy to mobilize political leadership
in realizing the rights of children while increasing efforts to target and
converge interventions on the most disadvantaged children in the most

under-served communities of the poorest provinces, municipalities and
barangays. The Programme has six sectoral components which aim to
address childrens rights and well-being within a rights-based approach.
Two of these components which are relevant to this forum are Education
and Child Protection. UNICEF has been a major partner of the
Philippine Government in ensuring that children have access to quality
and relevant basic education and children who are vulnerable to and
are victims of abuse, exploitation and violence are identified and
provided with protective environment. We are humbled to play a
significant role in assisting the governments implementation of the
National Child Protection Law known as RA 7610 which declares the
policy of the State to provide special protection to children from all
forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination, and
other conditions prejudicial to their development.
As educators, what would then be your role in preventing, and protecting
children
from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect? It is very
alarming to know that 500 to 800 cases of child abuse were committed
by teachers each year according to the Child Adolescent Psychiatrists of
the Philippines Inc. (CAPPI).
In 2006, the CAPPI survey also revealed
that 50 per cent of the perpetrators of child abuse in schools were

teachers. On the same year, the UP-PGH Child Protection Unit alleged
that 5 per cent of physical abuse and 3 percent of the sexual abuse
cases could be attributed to teachers.
Statistics cited refer only to
reported cases which mostly involved serious physical and psychological

damage on children.
In response to this pressing problem on violence against children in

school, UNICEF commissioned a study in 2008. It highlighted three
major aspects of violence against children (VAC) in Philippine schools.
One, that violence against children in schools is perpetuated either by
teachers, non-teaching staff or peers. Two, that certain forms of
violence, specifically corporal punishment, are not always recognised as
such even by children who experienced them. Three, violence results
from a mix of factors within and outside schools. More than 60 percent
of the children surveyed in this study experienced verbal forms of
violence such as being cursed, shouted at, ridiculed and humiliated in
school, at home and in other contexts. Almost half the children were
deliberately ignored or not spoken to which made them feel rejected and
socially isolated by people in school. Physical violence is the second
most prevalent form of VAC in schools. Children experienced their
teachers pinching them in different parts of the body, ear tweaking,
things thrown at them, standing under the sun for long periods of time, or
locked in an enclosed space. Experiences of sexual violence ranged
from verbal sexual harassment, undressing, and being forced to have
sex.
Moreover, a study commissioned by Plan Philippines revealed that 50 to
70 percent of children in elementary schools and 60 percent in high
schools have experienced violence in school. The other findings of this
study are almost similar to the results of the baseline research
commissioned by UNICEF.
Why am I sharing these facts and figures with you? Because these are
not mere numbers. These statistical figures have individual faces of
children who have been expecting to experience a loving, caring and
nurturing learning environment. These suffering children might be in
your own school. If teachers , other school personnel and fellow
learners who are supposed to be their families in the school are the
perpetrators, who then can they turn to?
It is for this reason that we are pursuing further our partnership with the
Department of Education in this area. UNICEF will be conducting a
baseline school climate survey among 10 selected schools in Cebu City,
Manila, Mountain Province, and Camotes Island in Cebu.
The said
research aims to determine the school climate and prevalence of

bullying and peer violence in the target sites, which is part of the Lets
Talk initiative and provide data that will serve as the reference point or
basis for comparison in evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the
programme. We will also support training of teachers and guidance
counselors on positive discipline; train student leaders as peer
mediators; and test an intervention programme dubbed as Lets Talk..
These efforts are geared towards creating healthy, safe and protective
environments for children, one of the seven goals of the UNICEF Child
Friendly School System (CFSS).
Department
of
Education
in
We have been supporting the

introducing
and
deepening
the
implementation of CFSS in selected public schools in UNICEF-assisted

provinces. And we are happy to note that the implementation of the
Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda of DepED is paving the way for
the mainstreaming and institutionalizing CFSS, not as a project nor a
program, but as a culture that every school, public and private, should
cultivate and nurture.
But what exactly is a Child-Friendly School and how can our school
become one? A Child-Friendly School has the following five traits:
1.
It is inclusive, gender sensitive and non-discriminating.
2.
It is effective with children
3.
It is healthy for children
4.
It is caring and protective of all children
5.
It involves children families and the community.
In an assessment of the CFSS implementation in six Asian countries

including the Philippines, the American Institutes for Research found that
although child-friendly schools have been successful in creating
welcoming classroom environments and providing academic and
emotional support to children, they have been less successful in creating
conditions in which many students feel emotionally and physically safe
factors which have been demonstrated to affect attendance, academic
performance, and school drop-out. Although having well-built, safe
schools that provide comfortable learning environments is important, this
alone is not sufficient to make a school child-friendly. Other less tangible
aspects like child-centeredness, engagement of parents, and mutual
respect among students and teachers help predict school climate and
determine whether a school is child-friendly.
In our continuing effort to promote CFSS, we have introduced the
Student Tracking System which will not only track education outcomes
of every learner but sensitive issues as well that negatively affect
each childs performance in school. This is proven to be a powerful
planning and monitoring tool at the classroom level which prompted
DepED to institutionalize the STS as part of the School Information

System.
There are other rights-based innovations which UNICEF is in the

process of modelling or expanding. And I am sure you have your own
good stories to share. Our challenge is how to engage a critical mass
of schools and educators to advocate and champion the up-scaling of
these proven effective rights-based innovations to benefit more children.
One concrete step is to continue this conversation. I hope there will be
more organizations like McKINLEY HILL and I Am SAM that will lead
us in this endeavour.
I am enjoining everyone , lets take a long but enjoyable and productive
walk together to ensure that every child will experience quality life in not
so distant future. Lets start our journey in our schools and I am looking
forward to be with all of you until we reach the finish line.
Good day.

Unicef Vanessa Tobin Endorsement For I Am Sam Foundation Teacher Sam Rayla Melchor Santos

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Unicef Vanessa Tobin Endorsement For I Am Sam Foundation Teacher Sam Rayla Melchor Santos

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MESSAGE

(To be delivered by Vanessa Tobin, UNICEF Country Representative

May I congratulate the McKinley Hill International School and Leadership

converge interventions on the most disadvantaged children in the most

from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect? It is very

In 2006, the CAPPI survey also revealed

that 50 per cent of the perpetrators of child abuse in schools were

Statistics cited refer only to

reported cases which mostly involved serious physical and psychological

In response to this pressing problem on violence against children in

research aims to determine the school climate and prevalence of

We have been supporting the

implementation of CFSS in selected public schools in UNICEF-assisted

It is inclusive, gender sensitive and non-discriminating.

It is effective with children

It is healthy for children

It is caring and protective of all children

It involves children families and the community.

In an assessment of the CFSS implementation in six Asian countries

DepED to institutionalize the STS as part of the School Information

There are other rights-based innovations which UNICEF is in the

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