Schools are the first formal spaces where young minds learn the values of social cohesion and mutual respect. They have a vital role in shaping positive social norms, fostering healthy expressions of masculinity and teaching the social and behavioural skills needed to break intergenerational cycles of violence.
Yet for too many children schools have become places of fear rather than safety. Violence has taken root in some classrooms and corridors, eroding the culture of care, protection and support that education is meant to nurture.
Confronting all types of violence in schools
This reality is why South Africa’s G20 Presidency has placed addressing school-based gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) high on the agenda of the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group, of which the GBVF Response Fund is a member.
Over the past month, the group hosted a dialogue series that laid the groundwork for proposed commitments and priority areas to be presented at its ministerial meeting on 30 October and further advanced at the G20 Summit of Heads of State in November 2025.
As South Africa steps onto the global stage through its G20 Presidency, driving vital conversations and commitments to combat gender-based violence among other key G20 priorities at the highest international levels, we are also forced to confront a difficult truth: the violence we condemn in our homes and in our offices continues to unfold daily in our classrooms, locker rooms and on our playgrounds.
The numbers tell a devastating story
Gender-based violence and harassment in schools can take many forms, from sexual harassment based on sex, sexual orientation or gender, to bullying, threats, ridicule and exclusion. These behaviours are not only humiliating, intimidating and traumatic in the moment; they also sow the seeds of long-term harm.
They shape how young people see themselves and the world around them, eroding their sense of safety, belonging, and self-worth. Over time, these experiences can shrink their horizons, distort their understanding of healthy relationships, and leave lasting scars on their mental health and overall wellbeing.
While much of this violence occurs out of sight, behind closed doors or in unsupervised spaces, its most brutal expressions often surface online, with videos of attacks going viral across social media.
Globally, according to Unicef, half of students aged 13 to 15, about 150 million, report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and around school. In 2025, South Africa has seen a concerning rise in school-based violence, with a 35.4% increase in reported cases of abuse and sexual harassment of pupils by teachers, reaching 111 cases in 2024/2025, and more than 500 bullying incidents reported in the first term (SABC News, Citation2025).
Behind each statistic is a child whose potential is being stolen, whose future is being fractured, whose brain, still forming those critical 1,000 neural connections every second, is being flooded with toxic stress instead of opportunity.
Acts of school-related GBVH are not isolated events; they reflect a worsening crisis. This crisis is driven by harmful social norms, unequal power relations, and toxic forms of masculinity, intensified by weak accountability systems that deny survivors justice and enable perpetrators to act with impunity.
When violence becomes normal
GBVH thrives in silence. It is masked by shame, protected by fear, and normalised in environments where violence is treated as inevitable rather than intolerable. Girls are particularly vulnerable in a society where patriarchal norms leave them unprotected and undervalued. But boys are affected too, not only as victims, but as witnesses and future men being shaped by the violence they see and the toxic masculinities they are taught to emulate.
The cycle is vicious and self-perpetuating. Children who witness domestic and other types of violence carry that trauma into their relationships. Boys learn that violence is power. Girls learn that submission is survival. Although these harmful and destructive partners need to be challenged within a schooling context, they remain pronounced.
When a child experiences or witnesses violence at school, the impact reverberates through every aspect of their development — emotional, behavioural, cognitive and social. Their ability to learn is compromised. Their capacity to form healthy relationships is damaged. Their future is being determined not by their potential but by the violence they have endured.
Schools as places of transformation
Schools are microcosms of society. They reflect our values, reproduce our norms, and shape the citizens we will become. If we can transform schools into spaces that actively challenge toxic masculinities and negative stereotypes and promote positive masculinities, we can interrupt the transmission of violence from one generation to the next.
The Department of Basic Education, in collaboration with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, the fund, Unicef and other role players within the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group, recently convened a dialogue which involved five schools across Gauteng, North West, Limpopo, and KwaZulu-Natal, demonstrating what is possible when we centre children’s voices in solutions.
The objectives of our intervention were clear: promote positive masculinities and respectful relationships among 15- to 17-year-olds; facilitate early conversations on violence prevention; and provide learners with platforms to dismantle toxic masculinities.
Furthermore, the fund partnered with Constitution Hill and the We, the People South Africa campaign to deliver a school outreach programme at Teto Secondary School in Welkom. The programme included workshops on the Bill of Rights and constitutional literacy, as well as a segment on the Respect gender-based violence prevention campaign.
Through intergenerational dialogues involving learners, parents, educators and school governing bodies, these schools discussed various approaches to violence prevention, driven by the voices of learners acknowledging their lived experiences.
What must change
The fund is clear on what must change.
- First, we must dismantle the harmful gender norms that fuel violence. Respect, consent and equality cannot be optional values; they must be foundational. Boys aged 15 to 17 are at a critical juncture. Interventions at this age can establish lifelong patterns of respectful behaviour and break cycles that have persisted for generations.
- Second, we must demand a justice system that puts children first, protects survivors and holds perpetrators accountable without delay or excuse. Deep-rooted cultural norms and stigma silence victims, especially when perpetrators are family members or authority figures. Under-resourced law enforcement and social services compound the problem. We need systems that work, not policies that exist only on paper.
- Third, we must support the caregivers, teachers, social workers, nurses, police officers and community leaders who serve as the first line of defence. Their work is vital, but they cannot do it alone. They need resources, training and institutional backing.
Children’s voices matter
Most importantly, we must listen. Children need to be seen, heard, and believed. They must be provided with safe spaces to speak up and assured of protection. When children are given these spaces, they will speak. When they know their voices matter, they will use them.
As one participant in the G20 dialogues emphasised, there is very little that children can do on their own to respond to GBVH. But if they are given safe spaces, they will speak up. Every act of violence or sexual abuse case is unique. It is only by listening to individual stories that collective and meaningful progress can be made.
This is why feeding children’s voices into the G20 Ministerial Dialogue is so crucial. The solutions cannot be designed without them. They are not just the beneficiaries of our interventions; they are the architects of change.
The choice before us
Amid growing concerns that human rights issues are being sidelined in global forums, now is the time to reaffirm our shared responsibility. Every child has the right to grow up free from harm, fear and neglect. Whether at home, at school, or in the community, we must create environments that protect children.
The question is not whether we can afford to address GBVH in schools. The question is whether we can afford not to.
Safeguarding our children is not a one-time event or an annual campaign. It is a lifelong commitment that begins with each of us, in what we treat as “normal”, what we tolerate, what we teach and what we choose to act on.
When we fail to protect children, we fail tomorrow’s citizens, consumers, workers, thinkers and innovators. Their abilities will drive tomorrow’s businesses. Their productivity will fuel tomorrow’s economies. Their capacity to contribute will shape tomorrow’s societies.
We cannot afford to fail them. DM