GATSIBO - Over 100 head teachers from different primary and secondary schools in Gatsibo district have formed an association to fight cases of child abuse including corporal punishment in schools.

The association was formed last Friday, at the end of a three- day head teachers’ training programme on child abuse.

The training organised by Plan International Rwanda was conducted in Rwamagana district. It attracted 79 primary head teachers and 39 secondary school head teachers.

Jean Baptiste Nsengiyumva, the head teacher of APEM Ngarama, said forming the association was in response to the growing cases of child abuse in schools.

‘Cases of child abuse have been happening in my school due to lack of strategies that could fight them. But with this training, no more cases will be allowed to happen again,’ he said.

In an interview with The News Times, the programme’s support manager in Plan International- Rwanda, Nene Sow Thiam, said the training is meant to equip head teachers with knowledge meant to check all sorts of violence in schools.

‘We started with head teachers because apart from being school heads, they are at the same time acting as parents. We shall extend the programme to other groups in the education sector,’ she said.

The mayor of Gatsibo district, Anselme Majoro Rurangwa thanked Plan Rwanda for the initiative which he said is paramount for the district’s development.

He asked the trainees to put into good use the knowledge acquired from the training and become agents of change in their respective schools.  

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