Rationale
Growing up in a healthy and safe environment is a right for every child. Children should be protected from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. The same applies to a home, community, school environment at a national or international level. Children should be protected. The aim of this course is to inculcate in the potential teacher the values, abilities, skills and knowledge that will safeguard the children and further enable them to identify any threats children may be exposed to. Being able to identify the indicators of vulnerability can help protect a child from further threats. Ensuring a safe learning environment for a child is crucial just as protecting the child itself hence, the role of the teacher is significant.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course students will be expected to:

(i)   Define child protection holistically.
(ii)  Identify examples of child protection issues within the home, community and school.
(iii) Examine the threats to children’s development.
(iv) Equipped with skills to assess the vulnerability of children.
(v)  Explain how to create a protective environment within the community and school.
(vi) Assess the different child protection systems and their relevance to the interest of the child and his/her right to safe learning environment.
(vii) Respond to child protection through responsive action and remedial action.
(viii) Responsibly intervene in cases of child neglect, abuse and negligence.