Schools’ Responsiveness in the Implementation of Child Protection Policy in the Division of Laguna

Abstract

The study determined the school leaders’ response to Child Protection Policy with the goal of proposing a management plan to better implement the program. Specifically, it described the school profile with respect to its capacity building related to CPP, committee, and school handbook. It also determined the profile of the respondents in terms of sex, age, position, and the number of relevant trainings and seminars. Moreover, the study measured the level of schools’ responsiveness to Child Protection Policy relative to duties and responsibilities, preventive measures, protective and remedial measures, and management of related cases. The study also looked into the differences of assessments on the level of school responsiveness to CPP when grouped according to profile variables which served as substantial elements in the preparation of the proposed contextualized rights-based management plan.

A descriptive method of research was utilized in this study. A survey-questionnaire was also used as the main data gathering instrument. The researcher also conducted focus group discussion and interview among experts to substantiate responses and validate results. This study involved 132 school heads and 362 teachers from the six City Division of Laguna.

Results from the findings revealed that public secondary schools are compliant with legal bases and requirements relating to child protection policy. Male and female school heads are fairly distributed, but there are many more male teachers than female teachers. There are few younger individuals in leadership roles, indicating that experience is important for career growth and emphasize the need for more training and professional development for both school heads and teachers. Schools have high level of responsiveness to child protection policy relative to duties and responsibilities, preventive measures, protective and remedial measures, management of related cases. Generally, there is no significant difference across all variables in terms of the sex of the school heads and teachers.  The proposed management plan aims to increase competence and skills among school heads and teachers in the implementation of the child protection policy.