The good school toolkit for reducing violence among primary school children with disabilities: A cluster-randomised controlled trial in Uganda

Introduction: Children with disabilities are believed to be more vulnerable to violence, but there is little empirical evidence. Furthermore, strategies have not been tested to reduce violence experienced by children with... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: Children with disabilities are believed to be more vulnerable to violence, but there is little empirical evidence. Furthermore, strategies have not been tested to reduce violence experienced by children with disabilities. The Good School Toolkit (a complex behavioural intervention) has been shown to reduce violence from school staff in Uganda. We tested whether it was also effective for children with disabilities.

Methods: We randomly selected 42 primary schools (clusters) from 151 schools in Luwero District, Uganda, with more than 40 primary 5 students and no existing governance interventions. All students in primary 5, 6, and 7 (approximate ages 11-14 years) and all staff members who spoke either English or Luganda and could provide informed consent were eligible for participation. Presence of disability was measured by the Washington Group Short Set questions. We randomly assigned 21 schools to receive the Good School Toolkit and 21 to a waitlisted control group in September, 2012. The primary outcome, assessed in 2014, was past week physical violence from school staff.


Results: At baseline, children with disabilities were significantly more likely to report experiencing physical, emotional or sexual violence or injury from school staff compared to children without disabilities. They were also more likely to report physical or emotional violence from peers. The Good School Toolkit significantly reduced the risk of physical violence from staff among the children with disabilities. Furthermore, we did not find any evidence of statistically significant differences in effects of the intervention between students who reported no difficulties, those who reported some difficulties, and those who had a disability.

Conclusions: The Good School Toolkit intervention can be considered effective for reducing violence from staff and peers towards students with difficulties and disabilities.