CHILD-FRIENDLY

SCHOOL
CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL

The Child-Friendly School (CFS)

framework, first operationalized in Thailand
in 1997, was conceived as a means of
translating the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) into school management
and classroom practice.
CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL
The CFS framework consists of five broad dimensions:
inclusiveness;
effectiveness (relevance and quality);
health, safety and protection;
gender-friendliness; and
involvement of students, families and
communities.
Ensuring the right of all children to a basic education
of high quality is at the heart of CFS initiatives.
FIVE DIMENSIONS:
1. Proactively inclusive, seeking out and enabling participation of all
children and especially those who are different ethnically, culturally,
linguistically, socio-economically, and in terms of ability;
2. Academically effective and relevant to childrens needs for life and
livelihood knowledge and skills;
3. Healthy and safe for, and protective of, childrens emotional,
psychological, and physical well-being;
4. Gender-responsive in creating environments and capacities fostering
equality; and
5. Actively engaged with, and enabling of, student, family, and community
participation in all aspects of school policy, management and support
to children.
WHAT IS ASSESSMENT IN CFS?
Assessment in CFS is concerned about determining whether
an activity is worth doing or not.
Monitoring involves:
Establishing indicators on processes and outcomes;
Establishing procedures and systems to collect information on
these indicators;
Developing tools and the procedures for collecting and recording
the information;
Analyzing the information; and
Using the information to improve program planning,
performance, and, thus, outcomes.
CHILD-FRIENDLY SCHOOL
Evaluation is the systematic and objective assessment of an ongoing
program, like CFS, including its design, implementation, and results.
IT LOOKS AT QUESTIONS:
What you set out to do or intended to achieve?
What progress was made?
How this progress was achieved?
What costs were incurred?
How sustainable is the program and its activities?
What are the implications for the way the school works and for its
various stakeholders?
What difference did the program (CFS) make?
WHY ASSESSMENT TOOLS ARE NEEDED?
1. Assess achievement, so that we can see if we are making a
difference or are having an impact.
2. Measure progress based on the objectives of the CFS program in
the school.
3. Determine, and improve upon, effectiveness, that is, the extent to
which CFS activities are achieving specific objectives.
4. Identify problems and their causes.
5. Encourage action by suggesting possible solutions to problems.
6. Improve monitoring and efficiency for better management.
7. Identify strengths and weaknesses in order to push you to reflect
on where you are going and how you are getting there.
8. Better planning and management of activities
9. Sharing experiences

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS AND INDICATORS

Learning Environment Dimension
1. Ensuring the access to school by all children regardless
of background.
2. Respecting and responding to diversity.
3. Eliminating stereotypes within the Curriculum,
Learning Materials, and Teaching-Learning process
 A Healthy School Environment
Physical, mental, and social well-being are core
factors in learning achievement, while good health and
nutrition are essential prerequisites for effective
learning.
Good health and nutrition increases enrolment,
reduces absenteeism and repetition, increases
educational attainment, and brings more of the poorest
and most disadvantaged children to school.
 Assessing Health, Safety and Protection in a
Child-Friendly School
Essential School Components:
1. Health-related policies in schools that help to
ensure a safe and secure physical
environment and a positive psychosocial
environment.
- Address all types of school injuries and violence, such as
the abuse of students, sexual harassment, and bullying, and
that help maintain the education system in the face of
HIV/AIDS.
2. Provision of safe water and sanitation
facilities.
- As first steps in creating a Healthy School Environment
that reinforces hygienic skills and behaviors; providing
separate sanitation facilities and privacy for girls is an
important contributing factor in reducing

3. Skills-based health education.

- Focuses on the development of knowledge, attitudes, values,
and life skills needed to make appropriate positive decisions, to
establish lifelong healthy practices, and to reduce vulnerability
to substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.
4. School-based Health and Nutrition Services.
- Address problems that are prevalent and recognized as
important in the community, including the provision of
counselling to cope with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Basic Characteristics of the School as a
Learning Environment
1. Location specific 5. Program structured
2. Time bound 6. Prescribed Learning
3. Time structured 7. Sequenced Learning
4. Learner structured 8. Specialist Staff
9. Specialist Resources
Teachers Responsibilities in a Child-Friendly
Environment
1. Strive to understand why some children
do not do as well as other.

2. Use different techniques and strategies

to get children to learn and succeed.

3. Operate on the basis that children

can follow different learning.
Facts used by Teachers as Basis of their Pedagogy
1. Children learn by exploring and expressing opinions
just as much as they do by memorizing facts and
following set rule.
2. Children need to challenge other opinions in the
process of learning just as much as they need to take
certain facts on trust from those who know better.
3. Children need the freedom to use their inner
resources to solve problems just as much as they need
guidance in making the best use of their natural talents
as learners.
 KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS AND
INDICATORS
The 3 Major Indicators of Child-Friend School
Effectiveness:
1. A Constructive School Policy and Management Environment
for Learning
2. Good Quality, Child-Centered Teaching and Learning
Processes and Outcomes
3. Enhanced Teacher Capacity, Morale, and
Motivation.
KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS AND INDICATORS
Gender Responsiveness Dimension
1. Quality, Gender-Friendly Learning Environments

2. Gender-Friendly Curricula and Learning

Materials
3. Gender-Friendly Teaching and Learning
Processes
KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS AND INDICATORS
Gender Dimension
1. Equal access to and enrolment in school by girls
and boys.
2. Equality in the learning process by girls and boys.

3. Equality in learning achievement levels for girls

and boys.
Assessing the Involvement of the Student, Family and Community in CFS
Selected Indicators of Child Participation in School
Philippines National Framework for Child Participation
1. Education is compulsory and free
2. Students are able to express their views through student-
centered teaching/learning methods.
3. Students have access to relevant information from different
sources
4. Students manage school publications.
5. The school system ensures student participation in school
management.
 6. Mechanisms for complaints and redress accessible to children
in cases of corporal punishment and other forms of abuse.

7. Existence of legal restrictions on taking physical measures

8. Teachers and school administrators consider childrens views,

ideas, opinions, and suggestions in planning and decision-making.

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS AND INDICATORS

Involvement of the Student, Family and Community in CFS Dimension
1. Mechanisms for students to express their views about
school work and school life and to participate in student and
school organization.
2. Mechanisms for building school-parent partnership for
school policy making and management, student development,
and protection.

3. Mechanisms for building school-community partnerships

for school management and support, student protection, and
community improvement.
 SPECIAL TOPICS

CHILD-FRIENDLY
SCHOOL

Reported by: Jovi Lopez

Cheen Laurenz De Jesus
Raymond Inducil