JEDDAH, 19 December 2005 — Officials at the Education Supervisor Office should be more vigilant in cases of child abuse reported to them, say educators at both public and private schools in the Kingdom.
Jeddah-based private school teacher Maha Abdullah told Arab News that in many cases teachers feel powerless to intervene on child abuse cases that occur at home.
“We speak to the parents and try to solve the problem, but these parents who use violence as a way of communicating with their children do not care to solve the problem,” said Abdullah.
Maha said that many parents use abuse as a disciplinary method, and that they believe it is justified. She described a student coming into class with bruises on her body. When she called the mother into school to discuss the abuse, Maha said, the mother’s response was to beat the child in front of the class.
“In some countries children or underage teenagers have the right to report violence committed to them by their parents or strangers just by calling a toll-free number,” said Maha. “Should we not also have a similar program, especially in a country where Islam advises us to take care of our children?”
Maha suggested that abusive parents who do not cooperate with the school should receive an official letter from the ESO stating their obligatory attendance at meetings with school counselors. If they do not comply, they should be fined, she added. She also agreed that this would not only be for the sake of the abused children, but it would also help parents develop alternative ways of communicating with their children.
Other teachers and counselors who preferred to stay anonymous said that many child abuse cases go unresolved because the ESO did not follow through on the reports filed by educators.
Salma Ahmad, a teacher at a governmental school, explained that the role the ESO plays is effective in some but not all cases.
“Though I have not encountered any physically abused children, I witnessed changes in some of the students who were having psychological problems, but they could not express them,” she said.
Ahmad said that it is easy to speak about problems of abuse with some students and gain their trust, but if that doesn’t work the school counselor is the right person to offer advice in dealing with abuse at home.
“It provides them with ways to deal with problems and prepare them to be better people in the future,” she said.
