\ 300,000 euros are allocated from the State Pact against Gender Violence 2018-2022

\ The Protocol for prevention, detection and action against male violence in schools has been presented.

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The Regional Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Martí March, accompanied by the Regional Minister for the Presidency, Public Function and Equality, Mercedes Garrido, and the Director General for Early Childhood, Innovation and the Educational Community, Amanda Fernández, today explained the initiatives that schools in the Balearic Islands will be carrying out to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November and took the opportunity to present some of the details of the Protocol for the prevention, detection and action in the face of male violence in non-university public schools in the Balearic Islands. The presentation was also attended by the director of the Institute for Coexistence and School Success, Convivèxit, Aina Amengual.

The year 2019 saw the launch of the first joint call made by the Regional Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and the Regional Ministry of the Presidency, Public Function and Equality for the programme “Awareness-raising actions for the promotion of equality and the prevention of male violence in educational centres within the framework of co-educational projects and the celebration of 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and 8 March, International Women’s Day”.

Martí March stressed “the fundamental role of schools as a place to work on attitudes in favour of equality and against male violence. We are working for an inclusive and united school”. For her part, Mercedes Garrido pointed out the importance of this programme “is the best antidote to fight against gender violence. Only by training all our children and young people in equality, respect and justice will we ensure that when they become adults they respect their equals, who are women”.

The aim of the programme is to raise awareness and prevent different forms of violence against women in schools through the design, implementation and evaluation of actions to raise awareness and prevent different forms of violence against women on a date as significant as 25 November, the International Day against Gender Violence.

Since 2019 the participation of the centres has been increasing, if in the academic year 2019/20 98 centres participated, in 2020/21 they went down a little due to the COVID and there were 85 centres, last year 2021/22 there were 117 centres and this year, 2022/23, 158.

Of the total number of centres, 110 are in Mallorca (105 public and 5 subsidised), 28 in Menorca (25 public and 3 subsidised), 18 in Ibiza and 2 in Formentera.

The activities organised are very diverse: self-esteem workshops, coeducation murals, theatrical performances, group dynamics, video clips, exhibitions, talks, photography competitions, co-educational playground projects, inclusive cooking, batucadas and wishing trees, among others.

The programme has a budget of 300,000 euros from the State Pact against Gender Violence 2018-22.

Protocol for the Prevention, Detection and Action against Gender Violence in Schools

The celebration of 25 N was used as an opportunity to publicly present the Protocol for Prevention, Detection and Action in the face of male violence in non-university public schools in the Balearic Islands. This protocol arises from the Coeducation Plan of the Balearic Islands 2019-2022, which calls for the drafting of a protocol for the prevention, detection and intervention of male violence in educational centres. It specifies that those responsible for carrying out this action are the Institute for Coexistence and School Success, IBDONA and a commission of experts.

The Director General, Amanda Fernández, recalled the role of prevention, detection and accompaniment that the centres have from the application of the Protocol “the centres have many prevention programmes such as emotional education or sex education; then a lot of work is done on detection and, finally, accompaniment, to refer the corresponding cases to specialists. The Protocol provides indicators that help to observe situations that should alert us to detect especially those that are not verbalised”. In this sense, the director of *Convivèxit stressed the educational nature of the Protocol “we are giving children and young people the opportunity to re-educate and change attitudes”.

The protocol aims to provide educational centres with tools that enable them to deal with the problem of male violence and to act in cases that occur in their environment.

Among its general objectives are

To build safe and respectful spaces that promote healthy relationships, personal and community well-being and learning as a principle of prevention of violence against women in educational centres.
Raise the awareness of the educational community in the fight against violence against women.
To enable the detection, intervention and monitoring of gender-based violence in the educational environment.
The best interests of the child must prevail in the procedure and measures adopted in the application of the Protocol. The labels “victim” and “aggressor” are avoided in this document in order to follow the educational and resocialisation criteria mentioned above.

The document is applicable to all non-university public schools. Private and subsidised schools are governed by their specific regulations, although they may adopt this protocol as a reference if they consider it appropriate.

The protocol covers the following cases:

Male violence in relationships between adolescents
Pupils who come from family contexts in which male violence takes place
Female genital mutilation
Gender-based violence in the relationship between a student and a teacher or a member of the non-teaching staff/ASP, or vice versa.
Female student of legal age who has suffered gender-based violence
Sexual exploitation of children and adolescents
Forced marriages
The protocol establishes how to detect warning signs in each case and the steps to follow. In addition, this document also contains recommendations for the prevention of gender violence and a directory of care and support services managed by other institutions or entities.

It is considered of vital importance to treat people involved in situations of male violence with educational and reintegrative criteria, in parallel to the disciplinary procedures that are activated in the educational centres or the actions carried out by the security forces and bodies.

In order to be able to apply the Protocol properly, it is planned to organise training courses for teachers.

For the preparation of this document, protocols of application to the educational field in other autonomous communities such as the Canary Islands, Murcia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Castile and Leon have been consulted.