Prevention pays: the economic benefits of ending violence in schools

The report ‘Prevention pays’ reveals the enormous economic and social cost of violence in schools across the world at community, national and global level. The key findings of the research include: Total cost of school violence in social benefits lost (in just 13 countries for which information is available) equates to almost $60 billion. Violence leads to truancy, lower educational attainment and thus lower level jobs. No country is immune to violence in schools but the cost to poorer families is disproportionately high, affecting their ability to escape the poverty trap. This report is a summary of the research carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and links to Learn Without Fear programme work. Plan argues that governments will save money in the long run if they invest now in preventing violence in schools and calls governments to: Introduce or enforce legislation banning all forms of violence; Invest funds in proven interventions to prevent school violence; Invest in teacher training and promote positive discipline methods; Establish school and teacher codes of conduct and reporting mechanisms.