Child-friendly Schools: An Assessment of Secondary Schools

Abstract

As education has many variables, essential arrangements are required in different areas to enhance its quality. School buildings, environmental arrangements, teaching and learning process, sources and materials, teachers, principals, health and security are the variables of which come to mind first. The concept of 'child-friendly school (CFS)' which was initiated and attempted to actualize by UNICEF's studies, has a nature including all these variables listed above and even more. The current study tires to identify to what extend the teachers, the principals and the secondary school students (5 th to 8 th grades) perceive their school as child-friendly. The mixed method approach was chosen for the study. The quantitative data was collected with 'Child-Friendly School Scale (CFSS)' developed by the researchers. A total of 54 schools and 4007 students comprise the sample, and the scale was implemented in one class from each grade level chosen randomly. The qualitative data were obtained from the volunteer teachers. Results revealed that the CFS characteristics of the schools changed according to the socioeconomic level of the school, gender of the students and the grade level. It can be suggested to construct a sense of awareness for the child-friendly school concept, to provide the continuity of the arrangements and to make them functional.

Implementasi Sekolah Ramah Anak untuk Membangun Nilai-Nilai Karakter Anak Usia Dini

“…Sekolah dianggap "ramah anak" jika memperhatikan faktor perlindungan kesehatan dan menjaga keamanan anak. Sekolah menyediakan lingkungan yang aman, bersih, sehat dan protektif untuk anak-anak, hak-hak anak dihormati, dan semua anak termasuk anakanak yang miskin, cacat, berasal dari etnis dan agama minoritas diperlakukan sama (Çobanoğlu, Tuncel, & Ordu, 2018). Sekolah juga harus menciptakan harmoni antara sekolah dengan masyarakat sekitar sehingga anak dapat belajar tentang norma dan interaksi sosial (Abdullahi, 2017).…”

Child-Friendly Schools: An Assessment of Kindergartens

“…A childfriendly school; encourages child-centered education in a safe, healthy and protective environment. CFS generally includes the following dimensions (Clair, Miske & Patel, 2010;Akoto-Senaman, 2015;Cobanoglu, Ayvaz-Tuncel & Ordu, 2018):…”

Parents Perceptions Regarding The Implementation of Child Friendly School Policy in Early Childhood Education

“…Child-Friendly School is a distinctive approach, as it goes beyond academic achievement to include all dimensions of a rights-based approach to education, promoting dialogue and debate about matters of value as well as about learning outcomes in academic content (Clair, Miske, & Patel, 2012). Schools are categorized as child-friendly (SRA) if they have friendliness elements such as safe, clean and healthy, caring and cultured environment, able to guarantee, fulfill and respect for children's rights and protect children from violence, and helping others, and supporting children's participation in planning, policy, learning, supervision, and mechanism of complaints related to the fulfillment of children's rights and protection in education (Çobanoglu, Ayvaz-Tuncel, & Ordu, 2018).…”

“…The conceptual framework includes five important to transform the schools into childfriendly ones (Clair et al, 2012;Çobanoglu et al, 2018;Orkodashvili, 2010). The first principle named as inclusiveness, seeking out and enabling participation of all children and especially those who are different ethnically, culturally, socioeconomically and in terms of ability; The second principle is effective academically and relevant to children's needs for life and livelihood knowledge and skills; The third principle is healthy, safe and protective for children and their emotional, psychological and physical well-being; The fourth principle is gender-responsive in creating environments and capacities fostering equality; and The last principle is interactively engaged with student, family, and community, enabling their participation in all aspects of school policy, management, and support to children's learning (Bernard, 2000).…”