Schools as protective spaces: how learning environments can lead the way in keeping children safe
18th August 2025
At a school in the department of Arauca in Colombia, a seventh-grade class turned a mural into a space where chidren and adolescents can reflect on gender stereotypes and violence against children, helping to create a school free from violence.
For Diba, a teacher at a school in Arauca, Colombia, a department on the border with Venezuela, it was common to hear boys say that girls couldn’t play soccer or that sitting with crossed legs was "a girls’ thing".
Today, as a result of her efforts, a mural at her school has provided a space for reflection and respect, challenging gender stereotypes that fuel violence in and around schools.
In border regions like Arauca, schools welcome students who have migrated from other countries, those forcibly displaced by Colombia’s internal armed conflict, and others who cross the border every day to attend class. This context exposes children and adolescents to potential violence, including sexual abuse and exploitation, which disproportionately affects girls. These experiences not only cause serious harm but also increase the normalization, revictimization and perpetration of further violence.
A clear example is violence in and around schools, which can have both physical and emotional consequences, affecting students’ well-being and academic performance, and in some cases, even forcing them to drop out of school.
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Changing this reality requires deep, systemic transformations, which can begin with small steps.
Safe learning environments
Children and adolescents spend much of their time at school. That is where they learn to engage with others, recognize differences, resolve conflicts, identify risks, and ask for help. The entire school community – including teachers, counselors, administrative staff, families, and local institutions – plays a crucial role in building safe and protective learning environments.
According to Colombia’s Ministry of National Education, the country has 11 million school-aged children. Of them, 70% have experienced some form of violence in schools, and 37% have been victims of bullying.
Changing this reality means creating strategies that prevent violence, allow for a quick response, and ensure appropriate care for those affected. That’s why UNICEF Colombia works with partners like Together for Girls to strengthen school communities, raise awareness about violence, build clear response protocols, and support student-led initiatives that address the drivers of this violence.
Diba was one of more than 200 people – including teachers, school counselors and local officials – who participated in this process across the Arauca, Chocó, La Guajira, Nariño, and Magdalena departments. At her school, the team identified the need to discuss gender stereotypes with students, since these often lie at the root of bullying.
“We saw the need to explore how students react to their differences and how they treat one another. Many of these stereotypes are clear in their language and the jokes they make.”
Diba, teacher at a school in the department of Arauca
As part of the training, participants learned prevention strategies and emotional regulation techniques. They also reflected on social norms that even educators had come to see as normal.
“Even though counselors know the concepts, when we looked at practical cases, it became clear that some teachers didn’t recognize them in everyday situations.”
Diba, teacher at a school in the department of Arauca
Diversity enriches us, and respect unites us
The process also included the design and rollout of a protocol to prevent and respond to violence against children in and around schools, based on national guidelines from the Ministry of Education, so that schools can be better prepared to provide protection services when needed.
As a result of this work, 28 School Coexistence Committees* incorporated concrete actions into their work plans to prevent violence, especially school-related gender-based violence. Examples of this violence range from when a girl is excluded from a game “because it’s only for boys,” to cases of verbal harassment and even sexual violence.
The protocol also included planning and funding for twelve school-based initiatives aimed at over 4,600 children and adolescents. These include radio programs, educational games, and artistic projects designed to address specific violence-related issues identified in each school. At Diba’s school, the initiative transformed a classroom wall into a mural to develop coexistence and student engagement, which has inspired both classmates and teachers.
“We started with workshops for seventh-grade students to reflect on gender stereotypes”, Diba explains. “They shared phrases they hear every day and reimagined them. For example, ‘Pink is for girls’ became ‘Everyone can wear whatever color they like’, and ‘Girls are the ones who care about their looks’ turned into ‘We all like to look presentable’.
That’s how they came up with the idea for the mural, which is now titled: ‘Diversity enriches us, and respect unites us.”
"Our school’s art teacher has already incorporated the mural into his class. Now, students from other grades want to paint murals, too. It’s become a space for dialogue”, says Diba.
This experience shows how, when actions are participatory and grounded in students’ realities, children and adolescents can reflect in a way that strengthens their ability to protect themselves and others from violence.
"We learned to value people for who they are and not judge based on appearances. It’s important for us to talk about these topics because that’s how we learn to respect each other and not exclude anyone.”
Valeria, participating student
The process continues
For Diba, the work is far from over. "We want to continue using these tools and bring in more people from the community, such as parents, caregivers, and former students," she says. "I always give students the task to tell their families what we did in class that day. Families need to be part of this awareness-raising process, too.”
Initiatives like this one reaffirm that, through practical, community-based approaches, schools can create safe learning environments where children and adolescents reflect on violence, challenge the norms that sustain it, and become agents of change in their families and communities.
*School Coexistence Committees are mandatory bodies in all educational institutions in Colombia, both public and private. They are established to promote and strengthen coexistence, prevent school violence, and ensure the human, sexual, and reproductive rights of students.