The British Council Uganda has called for stronger safeguarding measures to protect learners from abuse, bullying and emerging digital threats, emphasising that child protection is a shared responsibility that extends beyond school premises.
The organisation says schools, parents, teachers, learners and communities must work together to create safe environments where children are protected from physical, emotional and psychological harm, both in school and at home.
Speaking during a visit to Scoris International School in Kibuli, Kampala, Millicent Mugabi, the British Council Uganda Country Director, said safeguarding should not be treated as the sole responsibility of school administrators or parents, but as a collective obligation involving everyone who interacts with children.
“Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. It does not belong to the school alone, it does not belong to the homestead alone, and it does not belong to the students. It is everyone's responsibility,” Mugabi said.
She explained that schools have an obligation to ensure that learners are safe from the moment they enter school premises, while parents, siblings, domestic workers and other members of the community also have a role to play in protecting children outside school.
“From the moment a student enters the school premises, they have to be safe, they have to feel safe, and those around them should also be safe. When they go outside the school setting, there are several factors that have to be considered, including their journey home and the environment within their homes,” she said.
Mugabi added that raising awareness about safeguarding requirements and encouraging people to respect and implement them was an important starting point in ensuring that children feel safe in every environment.
“If you know what is required, respect it, are committed to it and put it into practice, then surely a child can feel safe in whatever environment they are in,” she said.
Fiona Bukirwa, the British Council Uganda Safeguarding Manager, said the changing nature of risks facing children, particularly through digital platforms and emerging technologies, requires schools to regularly review their safeguarding policies and practices.
Bukirwa said the British Council operates in more than 100 countries and continually assesses the risks faced by children who access its educational products and services.
She identified online safety as a major area of concern, citing the rapid expansion of digital services, social media platforms and artificial intelligence (AI), which have created new challenges for child protection.
“Our main focus currently is on online safety, given the emergence of many digital products and services, the advancement of AI and all these technologies. It is really an effort to keep up with the changing ecosystem in which our children live,” Bukirwa said.
She noted that the risks children face today differ significantly from those experienced by previous generations, making it necessary for schools and other institutions responsible for children's welfare to continually assess and improve their approaches.
“The abuse that we knew when I was growing up, perhaps 30 or 40 years ago, has changed, just as the environment in which we are raising our children has changed. It warrants that we constantly assess, understand and evaluate what risk looks like, what we need to do better and what we need to redesign,” she said.
Bukirwa explained that children can experience harm through online bullying, the misuse of their images and other forms of digital abuse, requiring teachers and school administrators to understand how to identify, report and respond to such incidents.
She said the British Council, in collaboration with UNICEF, developed a safeguarding toolkit to help schools assess existing protection systems, identify gaps and develop appropriate responses to risks affecting learners.
The resource is intended to complement existing safeguarding policies rather than replace them, providing practical guidance that schools can use to determine whether their current systems adequately address emerging threats.
“It is not that there is nothing out there. Many schools, including Scoris, have amazing systems and processes in place. But we wanted something that would allow for continuous review and help us check whether what we have still serves us in this day and age, with the new risks and concerns our children are facing,” Bukirwa said.
She said the safeguarding toolkit provides step-by-step guidance to help teachers and other school personnel respond appropriately when a learner discloses abuse or when concerns about a child's safety arise.
According to Bukirwa, safeguarding involves both prevention and response, requiring schools not only to put measures in place to minimise risks but also to provide appropriate support when an incident occurs.
For instance, a teacher who receives a disclosure of abuse from a learner needs to understand how to handle the information, assess the child's immediate needs and determine the appropriate support.
“The toolkit gives practical guidance. If a child discloses something to you in the classroom, as a teacher, do you feel confident? Do you know what to do in that instance? It spells out the practical steps you can take as someone responsible for the care of a learner,” she said.
Bukirwa added that responses must be tailored to individual circumstances because children who experience abuse may require different forms of assistance.
“Once you receive that information, what is the concern? What does this child need? The support that child A needs is not necessarily the same support that child B needs. You have to evaluate what support the child requires and then develop a care plan,” she said.
The toolkit is available in different forms, including a publicly accessible starter kit and a more comprehensive resource for British Council partner schools.
Bukirwa said the starter kit introduces schools and individuals to safeguarding principles, while partner schools receive access to the enhanced toolkit as part of the support provided through the British Council's partnership programme.
She added that the organisation works with partner schools across approximately 40 countries, with more than 20 partner schools in Uganda, although the precise number may vary.
Eric Okello, the headmaster of Scoris International School in Kibuli, said adopting the safeguarding toolkit had helped the institution identify weaknesses in its existing systems and improve its policies for protecting learners.
Okello encouraged other schools to adopt similar approaches, saying regular reviews were necessary because the risks facing children continue to evolve.
“It is important for each and every school to adopt this toolkit. Our experience with the British Council, particularly regarding the toolkit, has been very positive and encouraging,” Okello said.
“Before, we used to have challenges, especially in trying to identify some of the blind spots that needed to be addressed when it came to the safety of our children. But the toolkit has helped us assess our systems, examine our safeguarding policies, identify gaps and implement corrections,” he added.
He said the resource was particularly useful because it provides a structured framework that schools can adapt to their specific circumstances and needs.
“Every school already has a safeguarding policy, but we realise that the challenges keep changing. Today we have one challenge, and the next day the challenge may be different. We are living in a global world where things keep changing,” Okello said.
He explained that the toolkit enables schools to examine their existing systems, identify areas requiring improvement and introduce measures that respond to the risks within their learning environments.
At Scoris, he said, safeguarding arrangements include designated offices and key stage coordinators who are accessible to learners and can help them raise concerns and seek assistance.
The school also uses these structures to ensure that learners have clear channels through which they can report problems and receive support.
Okello said accessible reporting mechanisms were important because children needed to know whom to approach when they felt unsafe or encountered difficulties.
Atwif Kanyike, the Dean of Operations at Scoris International School, said the safeguarding toolkit had broadened the school's understanding of child protection beyond physical safety to include mental well-being, emotional security and online risks.
Kanyike explained that safeguarding had previously been viewed largely in terms of preventing physical harm, but the changing digital environment had introduced less visible threats that schools also needed to address.
“Initially, before the toolkit came, we looked at safety mainly in physical terms. We believed that to safeguard a child, you had to make sure they did not suffer physical harm while they were under your care,” Kanyike said.
“But when we read the toolkit, we discovered that safety can also be mental and emotional. There are many other dimensions to it, including cyberbullying, especially with the developments in technology,” she added.