Experiencing violence in schools can negatively impact girls' enrollment as well as the quality of the education they receive. Evidence suggests that sexual harassment is widespread in educational settings in many parts of the world. Children who have witnessed violence at home or experienced violence have lower educational attainment. In Zambia, girls who experienced sexual violence were found to have more difficulty concentrating on studies, some students transferred to another school to escape harassment, and others dropped out of school because of pregnancy. Few ministries of education around the world have explicit policies on sexual violence and harassment as unacceptable, and few have developed guidelines on the definition of harassment and how educational institutions should respond.
Health and Education Resource Centre