Addressing Violence against Girls (VaG) and its Impacts on Education

The goal of Universal Basic Education (UBE), as formulated by the United Nations (UN) in 2000, is achieving universal primary and secondary education by 2015 (UN, 2000). However, one of the impediments to the successful attainment of UBE in PNG is the issue of violence against girls (vag) in schools. Addressing vag has significant impact on the ultimate progress and outcome on the goal of UBE. In practice, PNG is not free from violence and its related issues of gender inequality. This study sought to understand school leaders’ efforts and students’ views on the ’significance of addressing vag in schools and its impacts on the implementation of UBE Policy in PNG’. The study utilized a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches in which interviews were used to collect data from adult school leaders and surveys with students. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics analysis were used to analyse the data. The research was carried out in two contextually very different schools in PNG, located in the NCD and Central provinces. Although the study concluded that school leaders at the two schools were attending to issues of vag in their schools, violence was still prevalent.