Albania: A protection network for school children
15 Aug 2012 Child Protection SystemsAlbania
Protecting children is a shared responsibility and schools must provide safe environments where children and young people may benefit from their rights. Since 2006, Terre des hommes (Tdh) has been actively working in Albania, in collaboration with various national and local partners, to ensure and strengthen the role of schools in assisting and protecting children. The project aims to develop a safe child protection network within the school framework. Tdh’s work therefore focuses on building the capacities and knowledge of those involved in child protection in the schools: psychologists, and school directors, among others, so that they may ensure child protection needs.
On the one hand, this network aims to become an integral part of the school system, and on the other, to strongly advocate for an institutionalisation of child protection tools in schools. To date, over 180 school psychologists and 480 school directors have benefited from training sessions related to child protection within schools. They attended round tables on specific needs as well as training sessions on the identification and management of cases of physical and/or sexual abuse.
One of the milestones of Tdh’s work in Albania was the introduction of a child protection programme in five universities, both private and public, by the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MoES). This programme was reinforced by a manual for the schools as well as a training handbook on child protection. This handbook is a step-by-step guide to structure the implementation of child protection standards in schools and a guideline on how to establish and empower the role of the school in a community-based child protection network. A national training module was then initiated by Tdh, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MoES), in order to improve the skills and knowledge of those working with school children.
Although Albania finds itself on the right track to building a solid social and institutional basis that will address issues of child rights and child protection within the educational system, many challenges remain. Delays in the approval of new laws result in problems regarding the legal framework required to respond to the changes initiated by the child protection measures to be taken within the schools. The lack of official instruments to supervise and monitor the quality of the work of the school psychologists, lack of qualified personnel the lack of psychological services in rural areas must also be highlighted.
Recognizing that the school is the nucleus that connects children with their family and community, and as such, its role in guaranteeing a safe environment for children’s education and psychosocial development, bears an immediate impact on the future of the Albanian society. Future developments must be oriented towards assisting schools to formulate and implement clear child protection policies and procedures, building networks to increase collaboration of school actors to ensure the rights and protection of children.
