Mainstreaming a Life Skills Education Programme Right to Play- Plus to Reduce Violence Against Girls in Pakistan

Aga Khan University3,000 enrolled

Overview

Right to Play-Plus (RTP-Plus) aims to address violence against women and girls by promoting changes in social norms among young people within the school environment. The project focuses on building the capacity of young people to identify harmful gender norms and prevent violence against girls and boys by incorporating Right to Play's play-based learning methodology and Aahung's Life Skills Based Education curriculum. The strategies employed include interactive, learner-centered methodologies, curricular activities, and the development of peer educators and junior leaders. Teachers play a crucial role as key influencers and delivery agents of the curricular content. The project emphasizes capacity development for teachers, challenging their social norms, strengthening their play-based methodologies, and improving their sexual and reproductive health and rights knowledge (SRHR). The ultimate goal is to equip teachers to effectively deliver a gender transformative curriculum, empowering young people to respond to and prevent violence. The research question for this study is: What is the effectiveness of an adapted play-based life skills education that incorporates a "whole school" approach in reducing sexual harassment and abuse, peer violence experiences, mental illness (including suicidal ideation), improving resilience, and promoting gender equity, SRHR knowledge in both home and public settings? The research objective will be achieved through two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (for girls-only, co-ed, and boys-only schools). The intervention arm participants will be able to participate in the adapted play-based life skills education intervention, which the Right to Play and Aahung will deliver. It will be provided to all eligible school children in grade 6. Moreover, a delayed intervention will be offered to the control arm upon completion of endline data collection after the comprehensive intervention is delivered in the intervention arm.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Interventions

Right to Play-Plus (RTP-Plus)BEHAVIORAL

The comprehensive curriculum comprises of themes: "Social and Emotional Development" and "Sexual and Reproductive Health" will be delivered by school teachers who will receive training from Right to Play and Aahung. There will be 60 sessions for two years.

ControlOTHER

There will be no intervention given to control arm during two years of cluster randomised control trial (cRCT). However, a delayed intervention having teachers' training, will be provided to the control arm after the completion of endline for the duration of 3-4 months.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 10 YearsMax age: 16 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Schools will be chosen from District Malir and adjacent areas, including Korangi and East Karachi. Among the 100 selected schools, the following distribution will be maintained: 40 girls-only schools (public), 40 co-ed schools (private), and 20 boys-only schools (public). * Schools having a minimum of 30 students enrolled in grade 6 * Private schools with low to medium fees, with monthly amounts ranging from PKR 2000 to 3500. * Factors such as teacher availability, school management support, accessibility to research and intervention partners, and school clustering will also be considered for the selection of these hundred schools. * Schools' willingness to adapt child protection and safeguarding/anti-harassment administrative measures and policies to improve school safety, reduce the use of corporal punishment, enhance school performance, and increase girls' retention rates, primarily apply to private schools. Exclusion Criteria: * Schools where Right to Play or Aahung have already implemented their play-based/other activities.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in physical, emotional, and sexual violence

International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN)-Child Abuse Screening Tool for children (ICAST-C) is used to measure physical, emotional and sexual violence at home among children aged 11 to 18 years. It has been adapted for use in school settings in previous studies to measure child abuse at school. 12 items related to physical and emotional violence, and 9 items related to sexual violence will be used in the current study to measure physical, emotional and sexual violence at home, school, and community. Each item is measured if this incident happened with the child or not. If yes, then next column measures whether it happened in the past 4 weeks or not. Moreover, there are questions about the location of such an incident and the person who perpetrated it. These questions will yield data on the proportion of children affected by physical, emotional, and sexual violence, the location of perpetration, and the characteristics of perpetrators.