South Africa: Training manuals and a national framework to promote school safety The South African National Education Policy Act of 1996 requires schools to create an enabling education system that supports the full personal development of each child. In 2016, the Government published two training manuals under the “National School Safety Framework” to inform and train teachers on how to discipline students without violence and following a positive discipline approach. This framework appoints the National Department of Basic Education as the accountability mechanism to ensure violence is never used to discipline children. MOVING TOWARDS A SOCIETY FREE FROM VIOLENCE: THE BENEFITS OF FULLY BANNING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT  Reduction of violence in society “ All too often, we see violence rear its ugly head in the places where we are meant to feel most safe: Our homes, our workplaces, and our schools. The fact that this type of behaviour is manifested at all levels of our society indicates a larger problem – a culture of violence. The normalisation of violent punishment, particularly among our youth in their formative years of development, makes for a troubling trend; these little girls and boys grow up with a worldview that has been shaped by the acceptance of harm as punishment, and that trickles into the way they treat others, from their co-workers to their spouses to their own children. It feeds into a cycle that is passed down through generations – a cycle that needs to be broken.” Prime Minister of Fiji, Hon. J.V. Bainimarama A society that uses and/or tolerates corporal punishment as a way of disciplining children spreads the message, even unintentionally, that violence is an acceptable and appropriate way to resolve misbehaviour and conflicts, which in turn can create entrenched structural violence. Prohibiting corporal punishment of children – and related programmes of training, education, awareness-raising and counselling – have proven effective in reducing violent behaviours of children when they become adults and equip them with non-violent conflict resolution techniques. Such laws, policies and practices recognise that building peaceful and inclusive communities starts in childhood. Burkina Faso: Economic and educational interventions in the family reduce violence Between 2014 and 2017, the Ministry of Social Action of Burkina Faso, together with Trickle Up, a local CSO, worked on a project to find out how economic and educational factors influenced the existence of violence in the family, both intimate partner violence and violence against children. The project worked over a period of one year with various families, divided into three groups. The first received financial support (e.g. access to credit at a reasonable interest rate), the second education on positive discipline, and the third, both. In the evaluation of the project it was found that the families in the first group reduced intimate partner violence but only those families in the third group reduced violence against children. This study shows the importance of the role of education in making parents aware of alternatives to violent discipline and the benefits of such changes. TOOL: Positive Discipline and Alternatives to Corporal Punishment of Children 5/15