A conceptual social work awareness programme on child sexual abuse for school learners in the South African context: implications for child protection services

Abstract

Child sexual abuse, one of the major abuses experienced by children, is increasingly occurring in South African schools. According to the media reports and research, teachers are sexually abusing school learners. In most instances, the victims of this sexual abuse are female learners. The purpose of this paper is to use a literature review to highlight the scourge of child sexual abuse perpetrated against school learners and to contend that the South African social work profession has an important role to play in child care and protection services. To this end, this paper proposes a conceptual social work awareness programme for learners, which deals with child sexual abuse, with a special focus on the South African context. The paper further advances discussions on different social work methods of practice to implement an awareness programme. The paper concludes with recommendations for social work practice.

Keywords: child protection child sexual abuse; children; school learners; social work programme