The Education Ministry has instructed school heads in a circular to conduct awareness programs for parents and guardians of teenage female students on how to protect themselves from being sexually harassed by drug addicts. Some tuition masters have also been taken in for questioning over child abuse.
Kurunegala District School Principals’ Association President A. Jayasinghe told the media yesterday that nearly 436 female students are reported to have been sexually abused this year. About 68 child abusers have been taken in for questioning and legal action has been filed against them by the National Child Protection Authority and the police.
Jayasinghe said parents should not send young girls on trips and pilgrimages with known or unknown people. Many incidents of raping young girls had taken place due to the carelessness of parents.
He said that eight school teachers and school heads were among the child abusers who had been taken in for questioning in the recent past. Sexual abuse of young students is very frequent at present due to the decline of moral values among adults and the younger generation.
Many parents do not send their young children to Sunday Dhamma schools but instead send them to private tuition classes where some of these students have become victims of child abuse.
He said the school authorities should introduce tough disciplinary measures for students and teachers to overcome this adverse trend of female students being abused.
Jayasinghe said that almost 2,809 complaints of child related abuse have been reported to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) during the first three months of this year. Last year, nearly 2,005 cases of child harassment were reported to the NCPA. Over 130 cases of selling infants illegally were also reported to the NCPA last year.
In 2018 around 375 cases of sexual abuse of children were reported and 126 persons were arrested and they were punished, he added.