By Nihan Koseleci Blanchy and Olivier Radelet

In an economically and socially disadvantaged suburb of Tunis, students at the El Omrane Supérieur High School transformed an old storage room into a school radio station. They painted garbage left in the courtyard in different colours, so that people would stop discarding drink cans on the floor.

“I feel this is best thing I have done in my life,” says Ghofrane, one of the students. “I even started to display my paintings.”

Ghofrane and his friends are part of a broad campaign, backed by the European Investment Bank, to improve conditions in Tunisian schools. As well as building new schools and refurbishing old ones, an important element in the campaign is education about violence and bullying in a country where school violence has hit worrisome heights. In 2015, nearly 30% of students reported being bullied at least a few times a month. Many students have discipline problems such as disruptive behaviour and vandalism. Yet the El Omrane principal reports a drop in the number of fights since the EIB-funded programme started.

Tunisia schools target violence

As the world begins to implement the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, no country can achieve the vision of this agenda while children are not learning in school or are physically and psychologically hurt. The inclusion of SDG 16.2 in the UN goals to end all forms of violence against children highlights how every youngster has the right to live free from fear and abuse.

Percentage of students expelled in Tunisia in 2016