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American Journal of Public Health Research
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Anne Lanham, Lillian Mwanri

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School Violence and Open Spaces for Learning in Cameroon

Abraham Tamukum Tangwe

Faculty of Education, Protestant University of Rwanda, Rwanda

Abstract: The paper sets out to examine school violence as a hiccup to open spaces for quality education in Cameroon. It was crafted from research on violence and educational quality in Cameroon colleges, emphasizing the effects of violence on students’ learning outcomes. This translates to how much and how well children learn and the extent to which their education leads to personal, social, and developmental benefits through respect, tolerance, collaboration, and creativity to attain education for life. The paper has been conceived using the experimental group design with a causal approach wherein the cause and effect are examined. The study was guided by the social interaction theory that shows that an actor's social influence contributes to producing victims' behavior. The research question focused on the extent of violence in education. The specific objective of this study was to understand the learners' violence, the effects of violence on their motivation and self-esteem, and its influence on their learning outcomes. It adopted the quantitative method of data collection and analyses followed by examining the data by appropriate statistical and mathematical rules for significant relations. The quantitative data obtained from the interviews of 924 respondents analyzed using ANOVA but reduced to descriptive statistics in this paper. The analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, frequencies, and regression analysis. The findings indicate an acute prevalence of violence in school, poor school quality, and challenging socioeconomic background. Besides this, the argumentation of schools as open spaces becomes moribund and problematic.

Keywords: violence, educational quality, open spaces, human rights

Received January 15, 2022; Revised February 18, 2022; Accepted February 27, 2022

Citation: Abraham Tamukum Tangwe, School Violence and Open Spaces for Learning in Cameroon. American Journal of Educational Research, 10 (2). 85-98. January 2022. doi:10.12691/education-10-2-3

1. Introduction

The paper looks at school violence as a hindrance to quality education by the lack of conducive spaces for learning, thereby showing the relevance of transforming schools into open spaces for learning. This is possible in a free school atmosphere with students and teachers as active participants in knowledge creation. Even if violence towards children and young persons is banned in Cameroon, it is still an ongoing practice. This study aims at exploring the experiences of violence of young persons and examine its consequences for the learning process. Quality education [1,2] underscores the child's rights to education through accessibility by eliminating gender disparity, instilling a favorable climate, self-esteem, tolerance, and responsible behavior. Education translates to “how much and how well children learn and the extent to which their education leads to personal, social, and developmental benefits” [3]. Quality education subscribes to a conducive and serene learning setting. In this paper, an attempt to diagnose the spread of violence, the various forms, and how it manifests itself is undertaken. Above all, it is important to understand the outcome of violence on school leavers' educational achievement and reflect measures to ensure sustainable access spaces. The paper will start with a cursory presentation of the background, the theoretical framework, methodology and the results. The discussion, conclusion and limitations of the paper will follow suit.

Learning spaces that are creative between students, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders resolve challenges for improved decision making and collaboration [4,5]. In such an atmosphere, the enhancement of the rights of the learners is assured [2,6]. Considering the interconnectedness of the global space [7] the holistic inculcation of values helps to strengthen accepted universal values and the child's rights according to that child, a sense of belonging through accessibility and eliminating other vices. It instils a positive school climate, self-esteem, responsible behavior, freethinking for life, tolerance, and democratic actions [1,8]. However, whatever dispositions were taken, human rights give individuals the right to conduct their lives as they see fit, even when their choices challenge societal and community norms.

1.1. Context and Problem

Cameroon educational providers have improved educational policies, ensuring the quality-of-service provision, more equitable distribution of learning opportunities, and more substantial incentives for greater efficiency in schooling [9]. The quest to achieve quality education fundamentally assures that children, youth, and adults gain the knowledge and skills they need to better their lives and play a role in building more peaceful and equitable societies [8]. Cameroon educational stakeholders have undertaken to protect all aspects of education with legislation and instill quality output utterly devoid of violence. Hence, the Law of Cameroon National Educational Guidelines of 1998 states, among other things, that the student's physical and moral integrity is guaranteed in the educational system. Corporal punishment and all other forms of violence, discrimination of any kind, the sale, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and drugs are prohibited. It is important to note that [10] discovered that 87% of children between 2-14 years of children experienced physical victimization and other strands of violence. The children are frequently insulted, yelled at, including the use of violent language. This has been exacerbated by the Cameroons situation report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [9] of the ongoing armed conflict between the government and separatist groups in the two English speaking regions indicating the internal displacement of 573.9 thousand persons. School children constitute a bulk of the displaced persons and the sum total suffer from structural violence. This is in addition to the shooting and killing of school children and their teachers in school [9]. In a feature news report from [11], reported the shutting down of schools in the South West Regions and corroborated the incessant shooting and killing of school children, teachers and parents including state workers. Quoting [12] in their report, it showed that some 850,000 children were not in school in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. In view of these developments, it is evident there are many indications that a large number of children in Cameroon experience major adversity due to political violence and socio-cultural challenges. Attacks by Boko Haram in the North of Cameroon and the separatist fighters in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon has led to trauma and loss of life [13]. House demolitions of family homes disrupt children's schooling. The authors estimate that house demolition increases the probability that a child will not complete the school year by two thirds [13]. Such victimization is expressly physical and psychological and not limited only at home but in school. Based on some discourse of violence, researchers in Cameroon argue, and rightly so, that education is not used as a violent reduction paradigm but instead used to indoctrinate the learners with violence [14]. Furtherance to this challenge, the schools in Cameroon, exposed to violence, indicate that it leads to depression, reduced self-esteem, fear, and the ability to learn, making a study relevant to verify such a hypothetical claim. Violence is visible and observable with constant screaming at the children by the parents, classmates, and teachers. Unfortunately, there are abundant studies [15,16,17,18,19,20] that are more often than not, limited to gender violence. Moreover, at the time of carrying this study, there was no visible study on the effect of violence on students' learning in school, indicating its relevance. Above all, any available violence analysis is generalized and inadvertent, disregarding the different contextual strands of physical, psychological and structural violence available in Cameroon. By dint of this fact, this paper is an addition to the budding and near barren research on violence and its effects on the learning of children in Cameroon and explicitly pose an existing and silent scourge in the educational sector in Cameroon. The study research question focused on the extent and influence of violence in education and the specific objective was to understand the learners' violence, the effects of violence on their motivation and self-esteem, and its influence on their learning outcomes.

2. Theoretical Review: The Concept of Violence

[15] sees violence as “where everyone endeavors to destroy or subdue one another, making life solitary, nasty and short” (p. 193). Violence means “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either result in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation” [19]. This particular definition encompasses all types of violence and covers the wide range of acts of commission and omission that constitute violence and outcomes beyond deaths and injuries [19]. Violence is “present when human beings are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their potential realizations.” [21,22] further elaborate on this position by indicating that psychological child abuse encompasses mental injury, ridiculing, the threat of harm, emotional abuse, and emotional and mental neglect. These acts may not cause immediate physical harm but may cause long-term mental health problems that are just as damaging as physical abuse or neglect. Worthy of note is the cultural violence that [23] elaborated on. To him, “cultural violence preaches, teaches, admonishes, eggs on, and dulls us into exploitation and repression as normal and natural or into not seeing them mainly as the aspect of exploitation.”

Violence can also be an avoidable impairment of fundamental human needs. Apparently, in the sub-Saharan African context, the respect for human rights, which shows an inclusive environment void of violence, is more often the exception than the rule. Becoming a victim or perpetrator of violent relationships such as those with family, friends, and the community context may occur at any place, including schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods [19]. Violence is initiated by those who oppress, exploit, and fail to recognize others as persons – not by those oppressed, used, and unrecognized in the process [24]. In regard to overcoming violence, education plays a double role. Schools should be safe places, empower students to overcome violence and to learn a life without violence. Secondly, schools should teach to overcome violence. This can be handled in a process wherein liberation is not a self-achievement attempt but a mutual process revolving around all the stakeholders of education [24]. It is there that quality education plays a role by cultivating the learner's cognitive adaptability to new knowledge [20] and enhancing the essence of education for life. Consequently, this notwithstanding and cognizance of protecting and enhancing the child's rights [6,8,25] leads to expectations in holistic child upbringing and to an enhancement of the quality of education. Such a concept helps to strengthen the rights of the child by, a sense of belonging through accessibility and eliminating gender disparity, positive school climate, self-esteem, responsible behavior, free-thinking for life, tolerance, and democratic actions [1,8]. Human rights give individuals the right to conduct their lives as they see fit, even when their choices challenge societal or community norms [26]. It has given a lucid, explicit explanation of the structural nuances related to violence which remains anathema to education in the Cameroonian society but hardly respected and upheld. This again presents the complete disproportionate practicality of the concept of violence, especially in Cameroon's educational milieu from the home to the school, with seemingly significant consequences. Such violence has imparted the students' learning outcomes in Cameroon, especially in Cameroon. They have not been allowed to study by no fault of theirs, primarily emanating from a bilingual and multicultural Cameroon's political differences. This completely negates the home and school violent inclined processes whose normative bearing on the students' learning ability in Cameroon leaves a lot to be desired. Furthermore, violence is aggression that has extreme harm as its goal (e.g., death). All violence is aggression, but many instances of aggression are not violence. For example, “one child pushing another off a tricycle is an act of aggression but is not an act of violence” [27]. Students typically do not learn alone but rather in collaboration with their teachers, in the company of their peers, and with their families' encouragement. [27] explicitly support this position by positing that those in a position of authority use coercive actions to produce some change in the target’s behavior. An actor can use coercive acts to obtain values like information, money, goods, sex, services, safety to exact retributive justice for perceived wrongs, or to bring about desired social and self-identities. Because relationships and emotional processes affect how and what they learn, schools and families must effectively address these aspects of the educational process for all students' benefit [28]. Violence has become a severe problem affecting students, families, and educational construction and affects the overall [29]. The relevant variables to ascertain the learners' learning and social abilities in improving social competencies are tightly linked to better educational quality. This can be achieved by “raising knowledge, supporting resilience, and promoting self-regulation and self-efficacy” [30]. Hence, this explains why social and affective processes connected to children's relationships inside and outside the school setting are essential factors in children's successful adaptation to school [31] and how experiences of violence do influence the learning process. Cameroon’s study environment is incidentally and visibly pro-violence and acting contrary to law No: 98/004 of 1998 that outlaws’ violence in all its forms. These various forms of violence range from physical violence that is referred to as violence related to hitting, striking, wounding, slapping or bruising a dependent child to punish, discipline, or show disapproval [17,32]. This is the form of violence that is most visible in schools when teachers beat students or students are beaten by classmates. Further to this, psychological violence is felt by the learners and [33] sees it as “the systemic destruction of a person’s self-esteem and sense of safety, often occurring in relationships where there are differences in power and control. It includes threats of harm or abandonment, humiliation, deprivation of contact, isolation and other psychologically abusive tactics and behaviors” (p. 1). Varieties of terms are used “interchangeably with psychological abuse, including emotional abuse, verbal abuse, mental cruelty, intimate terrorism, and psychological aggression. Moreover, structural violence according to [23] is seen as “social injustice wherein some social structure or social institution may harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs.” Structural violence to [22], is “violence that is built into the structure of the society and reflects wide-spread inequalities that are not confined to the individual relationship between the perpetrator(s) and the victim(s).” Structural violence, unlike personal violence, also tends to show considerable stability over time. [24] factors in and points out that structural violence in a society is a form of dehumanization and power. The last form of violence under review is sexual violence and entails several forms of non-consensual sexual acts, including unwanted comments, kissing, touching sexual parts of the body, forced masturbation, attempted rape and rape [34]. These actions of a sexual nature are deemed to be against a person's will and without their consent, commonly conceived as rape and seen as completed or attempted penetration of some kind [35,36]. Sexual violence becomes complex when limited to sexual abuse that are sexual acts involving an adult and a child, or any other situation in which there is a power imbalance and the victim is vulnerable, e.g., in the case of a teacher and a pupil. There is a plethora, availability and treatment of the literature on violence and its different forms [17,19,22,37], but it is not streamlined on the types and effects it has on learning in Cameroon, leaving and occasioning a considerable gap. [38] argues that it is structural and psychological and not explicitly visible in most situations. Violence is often verbalized in the context of Cameroon and at variance with universal school-based efforts to promote students’ social and emotional learning that represent a promising approach to enhance children's success in school and life [28]. Parents are always overheard referring to their children as, "devils", "witch", and "I wish you were never born" amongst other pejorative statements, exercising hyper-masculine and or patriarchal violence, poverty, and the absence of social amenities. Teachers find themselves in a preoccupying situation when trying to teach students engaging with violent inclinations from home, and other harmful activities [39]. [27] factor in by showing that it reduces the quality of education and un-teaches the learners who copy and see it as the actual [2,40,41]. These studies, where available are limited to sexual victimization, rape, gender abuse and not the different violent types in school, particularly in Cameroon. This is strengthened by the work of [19] that has shown that sexual violence typically and usually come from the police, clinical settings, non-governmental organizations, and hardly ever from school. From the literature, violence is limited to physical, pair sexual, and gender violence and leaving a considerable gap or a complete absence of violence on the learning of the children in schools in the case of Cameroon. This negates to a large extent structural and more often than not, cultural violence which is handled by another paper.

2.1. Schools as Open Spaces for Learning

Open spaces provide students with learning opportunities to explore real-world issues through authentic learning experiences within collaborative learning environments [42]. This involves utilizing hybrid learning environments, which combine face-to-face to the online approach. It is a radical shift from traditional brick-and-mortar formal classrooms to the increasing inclusion of online and computer-mediated communication and connecting methods [43]. This leads to an appropriation of a complex and challenging dynamic with the onset of the COVID19 pandemic that has wholly rendered the face-face schooling possibilities near redundant. It is becoming a new and better situation and an acceptable approach in the management of physical violence and other forms of violence. Such open spaces in schools completely disregard the hierarchical, top-down power conversations within schools. It is intended to flatten out the hierarchies and open spaces that promote a sense of equality and allow students and teachers to be oriented towards action and innovation [5]. The defining criteria of such a setting are emancipation, working from the bottom up, participation, diversity, debate and difference, openness to action, and exchange of all ideas. The learning space remains a socially constructed process and occurs in teams that deal with inter-related concepts [44]. This process in the space should transmit values of tolerance, respect, gender equality, democratic debate, inter-faith respect, safe space and shun discrimination, hate, and violence, ensuring interactive shared views that can enhance creativity and change relevant to all contexts. This process can be harnessed by a frank exchange. It is a means of clarifying issues within a community of human beings as an essential component of their reality [45]. It is claimed that a learning context characterized by respect and openness facilitates the practice of 'problem-posing education, which Freire equates with "the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality" [23], p. 64] Such a precept is definitely at variance with unfree spaces and settings. According to [15] who sees nature as a place of violence where everyone struggles to undo or subdue one another, open spaces become an anathema. Considering the importance and requirements to have the schools as open spaces for learning, this compromises the very possibility of a pedagogical environment capable of preparing the child to assume a responsible life in a free society with a spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all peoples. The concept of open spaces in the framework of the principle of educational quality that determines how much and how well children learn and the extent to which their education translates into personal, social, and developmental benefits [3], is, therefore, skewed in Cameroon because of the school hypothesis in the preceding paragraphs. The prevalence of violence transforms the schools into violent indoctrination of the students [14]. It reflects the theoretical orientation that indicates that people acquire aggressive responses the same way they gain other complex forms of social behavior-directly or by observing others do it [27].

2.2. The Conceptual Model

According to the state of research and the social learning theory [27], a model has been developed reflecting the relation between violence and learning. It is inspired by the above-mentioned reflections and theories. The independent variables are the different forms of violence, victimization and aggression at home and in school. They shall be measured by the mediating variables as self-esteem, motivation, and health impairment. The dependent variables are the learning at school through subject grades (see Figure 1). The social background of the students as the economic situation of their parents’ needs to be controlled as this as well as described above has an influence on the learning and on violence as well. The students' social background controlled these aspects, and the context emanating from school as well as from the family background of the students will also be brought into focus. The constructs on the left are the independent or predictor variables, while the dependent or outcome variables are found on the figure's right.

Figure 1. Conceptual Model (Source: Adapted from Krogull et al. 2014)

3. Methodology

This study was conducted using a cross-sectional design with the use of a quantitative research approach. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire, which was prepared and tested in two separate pilot studies to assess and confirm the reliability of the instruments. This was administered to the participants in eight public and private-public schools, with the public education officials authorizing its administration. The quantitative data collection protocol involved employing structured or closed-ended questionnaires filled by the respondents [46] to enable information generation [16].

3.1. Sample Population

Cameroonian students comprising 924 (43% males and 57% females) were recruited from 8 secondary and high schools from two districts in the West region of Cameroon. Their age ranged between 12-30 years, with an average of 18.1 years (SD = 2.54). Their parents' socioeconomic status was inferred by considering the education and occupation of their parents (mother, father and guardians). The approach is not an accurate method to assess their families' socioeconomic status. However, it is a pointer of the dominant social group of the students. Noteworthy is the fact that 65.2% of the students came from a low socioeconomic background, with 23.3% from the middle class and others from well-to-do homes and this indicates the heterogeneity of the students. More than 50% of their parent's education level is below the accepted standards concerning those with the basic level of education. Such heterogeneity is more visible in the different jobs the parents are engaged in for their sustenance.

3.2. Instrumentation and Data Collection

The diverse and different forms of violence related to physical victimization and aggressiveness at home and in school are the intentional application of physical pain as a method of behavioral change [47] were measured with a Likert scale from [48] having a twenty-two-item scale with example items "at home in the past three months, how often have you been slapped on your face or your head with the hand," with a four-level answering model from the Likert scale. This was never =1, often = 4.

Psychological violence was measured using scales on bullying, a harmful action when someone intentionally inflicts or attempts to inflict injury or discomfort upon another [49] and was instrumented with the twenty-two-item scale [48] the example items was "at home in the past three months, how often have your parents said they wished you were dead or never born." The items used a four-level answering model from the Likert scale (never =1, often = 4).

Perceived danger in school includes violent perpetrators, feelings of fear and insecurity, criminal, antisocial behavior, and the school's disciplinary system [46,50]. Students were asked to indicate how often each of the five kinds of behaviours occurs in their school campus (drug use, vandalism, alcohol consumption, fights, theft, bullying, and weapons possession). It was verified with a 5-point scale from [46] with five responses (not at all =1 and very much = 5).

Communication and worries about family members are the teacher's knowledge and mastery over the communication skills for transferring the ability and the interplay of parents' and teachers' communication with students learning, especially the kind of support received from parents. It used a five items scale [51] with this example, "I feel upset because my parents and teachers have different ideas about what I should learn in school." It was scored with a five-format scoring (not at all true = 1, very accurate = 5).

Experienced in sexual violence that dealt with any sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person's sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home, school and work [19]. It was examined with a seven-item measure adapted from [34]. The example items were "Any teacher making you have sex in exchange for marks," "Anyone touching your private parts or made you touch theirs." This was measured with a four-answer format (never = 1, many times = 4).

The mediating variables used aspects of learning like self-esteem, motivation, and health impairment to assess the effects of experienced violence.

Self-esteem refers to general feelings of self-worth or self-value and, therefore, motivate or shape a person's belief in themselves [52]. This supports the position of [53] in self-efficacy, which are the beliefs that determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves, and behave. It was instrumented with a 20 items scale [45] with these examples "I feel confident about my abilities" and "I am worried about whether I am regarded as a success or a failure." It was tested with a five-format scoring from the Likert scale (not at all = 1, extremely = 5).

Motivation interprets human and infrahuman behavior, a fundamental part of our efforts to achieve good psychology of learning, perception, thinking, and social behavior of all forms, whether regular or abnormal [54]. When applied to the realm of education, motivation in the self-determination theory [55] is concerned primarily with promoting an interest in learning, valuing education, and confidence in their capacities and attributes. It was examined with a five-item scale from [51] with the following example (extrinsic) "It is important for me that I learn many new ideas this year" and (intrinsic), "one of my goals in class is to learn as much as I can." This was assessed with a five-level scoring format (not at all true= 1, very true= 5).

Physical health indicates that the social and emotional learning programming with health has improved students' achievement test scores [56]. This was examined with an eight items scale from [57] with this example, "Does your health prevent you from doing work in the house or going to school?" It was measured with a three-level format (yes, for more than three months = 1, yes, for three months or less = 2, No = 3.

Social learning climate describes the interaction of favorable effects in which an orientation towards cooperation is involved. It was instrumented with 13 items scale from [58] with this example, "I can count on my friends when things go wrong" It was assessed with a seven-answer format (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The foregoing scale items led to the following reliability of the test instruments as seen in Table 1 below,

Table 1. Reliability of the Different Scales

Outcomes are the children skills acquired by transferring knowledge to better their lives and help them to undertake responsibilities in building more peaceful societies [8]. The assessment was undertaken with selected subject grades. The students were allowed to indicate their scores in the following core subjects, French Language, English language, Mathematics, and ICT or science grades. The grading was limited to a five-level grading format (fail = 1, average = 2, fair = 3, good = 4, very good = 5).

Social Background (Control Variables), otherwise referred to as the student's demographic status. It was controlled because it was not the study's focus, and its existence affects the dependent and independent variables [59]. Therefore, it was necessary to be held constant to avoid influencing the results and making them biased. The different items included the age, gender, socioeconomic status of parents, a question for repetition, orphans or refugees, location of the school, school type etc. The items selected for the student’s social background were adapted from the [60] student questionnaire with items that asked them to indicate their sex, "male/female," age "day-month-year," class, and the type of school they were attending. In addition to this, they indicated their parents' occupation (mothers' job/fathers' job) by writing the occupation type and the parents' educational level by marking an (x) on the corresponding levels per parent, FSLC / OL / AL/ BA / MA / MSC / PhD. (These are different certificates indicating the parents’ attainment level in education). The questionnaires had to be translated into the French language from the English language and later re-translated again from the French language back to the English language to ensure a consistent, coherent, and explicit flow of research items. The translation was because of a change of the initial data collection point in the English-speaking region due to the ensuing war situation in the West French-speaking region of Cameroon. The filling of the questionnaires lasted for less than 40 minutes. The students received consent from their authorities and the education stakeholders to participate and take part in filling out the questionnaires.

3.3. Procedure

The study adopted a streamlined ethical process before engaging the project. Considering the subject's sensitive nature and keeping with all scientific research deontological principles, my organization’s ethical protocol and stipulations, the University, educational stakeholders, and government authorities were consulted and gotten before commencing the process. The selection of research assistants to collect data in Cameroon for the project was meticulous and systematic, and they were experienced in such projects on violence dealing with students. They were trained to adopt a favorable position with the young persons and upheld their secrecy and confidentiality. They were schooled to be patient to communicate explicitly without ambiguity especially if the students indicated their disinterest in the process. The sample was randomly selected from eight schools in two districts. The school leaders held consultations with the students and parent representatives to explained to them the purpose of the data collection beforehand. They were assured of the confidentiality of the information they were about to provide. They were explicitly told that the information was intended for scientific research, and no information about their schools or themselves could be disclosed to anyone for any reason whatsoever. It was explained to them to disregard any question they were not comfortable answering. Their anonymity and confidentiality were assured for the provided solutions. Moreover, twelve students (approximately 1.3%) were excluded from the sample because they left out more than 80% of the questions without answers. In all, the validated model was made up of 912 students.

3.4. Data Analysis

This research project adopted the quantitative approach in data treatment and analysis and was undertaken with the statistical package of social science known as SPSS and JAMOVI 0.9.0.1. Jamovi was adopted as the operational tool for processing and interpreting the data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, means, standard deviations, percentages, and linear regressions.

4. Results

4.1. Gender

Some 924 students took part in the study, with 12 declared missing in the data set and were excluded. However, the sample related to the gender composition was not balanced as can be seen from Table 2 below,

Table 2. Sample Gender

The gender imbalance stems from the fact that there is a higher ratio of girls attending the schools in this region selected for the data collection. As can be visible from the sample, the high proportion of girls corresponds to the number of girls attending the eight schools where the data was obtained. This gender imbalance is because the permission for data collection was only given for schools with low tuitions and lower academic prestige. This is the reason for the imbalance of girls as families with better socio-academic backgrounds would send boys to schools with a better reputation, which had not been represented in the sample. For instance, in one of the colleges visited to collect data, out of 1050 students, 630 were girls (60%), and 420 (40%) were boys. This, therefore, indicates that the respondents correspond to the ratio of students present in these schools in reality. This explains the uneven sample spread of the study at hand, with 42.8% constituting males and 57.2% females in the whole sample.

4.2. Age of Respondents

In addition, with regards to the statistics from the data of this project the age of respondents ranged from 12-30 for the first and second cycles of secondary school as seen from Table 3 below,

Table 3. Age of Respondents

The respondents with the ages below 15 years were 54 and constituted 6.1%, and 15 but below 20 years were made up of 67.8%. The rest of the respondents from 20 years and above were 232 and constituted 26.1%. This indicated the mean (M) for the males at 18.1, and for the females, the (M) was 18.0. In addition, the standard deviation (SD) for the males was 2.57 and the (SD) of the females was 2.48 and as earlier noted, the youngest student per the sample was 12, and the eldest was 30 years. This shows that the school-going age disparity is due to the poor quality of the school system and the class repetition of the respondents.

The sampled students mainly visited were found in grades 4-7, but most were from the second cycle of secondary school in the 6th and 7th grades, respectively. In view of the age distributions as can be seen in (Table 4) below, the mean (M) average of age for the students in grade 4 was 16.5 (median =17), grade 5 = 15.7 (median = 16), grade 6 = 18.1 (median = 18) and grade 7 = 20 (median = 20). This can be seen in Table 4 below,

Table 4. Class Distribution of Respondents

In each of the classes from lower to upper secondary schools, the gender spread of the respondents in each of the categories was unevenly distributed. Each of the classes had more females than the males and seen Figure 2 below,

Figure 2. Gender Distribution by Class (Source: Primary data, 2018)

The table shows that the balance between female and male students was in grade 7 different from the balance in the overall sample as here, the share of female students was even higher than in the average of the sample. The respondents in lower secondary schools had more difficulties understanding the depth of the different variables on the questionnaires. Because of this challenge, a conscious decision to work with more high school students explained why more students in the 6th and 7th grades showed more understanding of the different variables on the questionnaires.

4.3. Experienced Forms of Violence.

This section will examine the student’s degree of experienced violence at home and in school, psychological violence at home and in school, and structural and sexual violence.

4.3.1. Physical Violence

The descriptive statistics on physical violence experienced at home were on a scale of 1= never, 4= often with items as “how often have you been badly beaten at home.” These students suffered from violence at home with M = 1.40 (SD = 0.47). For the case of physical violence in school, the measurement scale was the same as the one at home with items as “how often have you been hit by a staff”. The students experienced violence with M = 1.30, (SD = 0.33).

4.3.2. Psychological Violence

Concerning psychological violence at home, the scale was 1= never, 4= often with items as “has anyone in your family said they wish you were dead or never born?” Students reported experiences with psychological violence at home, indicating M = 1.30 (SD = 0.49). Regarding the psychological violence at school on a scale with items as “how often have you been verbally or emotionally abused by a school staff?” students experienced psychological violence in school, indicating M = 1.42 (SD= 0.86). On the level of single items, students reported when asked, “How often you are referred to as a devil” 6.4% of respondents indicated that this happened “sometimes,” and 4.2% said this was “often.” On being “bewitched” by their parents, 6.0% of respondents answered it was “sometimes,” and 4.2% reported it was “often.” On “how often you are verbally or emotionally abused,” 17.0% indicated it was “sometimes,” and 8.6% said it was “often.”

4.3.3. Structural Violence

Structural violence was measured on a scale of 1=, not at all, 3= very often. The students were, i.e., asked, “how often do alcohol consumption and drug abuse occur in your school?” Students found their school environment hostile and not conducive to their studies with M = 1.71 (SD = 0.53). This was related to their safety and comfort in school. The following Figure 3 gives an overview of different forms of experienced violence.

Figure 3. Levels of Experienced Violence (Source: Primary data, 2018)

About 20% of student’s experience physical and psychological violence. Violence is experienced at school and home. More than half of the students experienced structural violence.

4.3.4. Sexual Violence

Sexual harassment was measured on a scale of 1= never, 4= many times, sought to know from the student's information as, i.e., if “any teacher has made you have sex in exchange for marks?” Students reported to the scale indicating a mean M = 1.44 (SD= 0.55). 24.0 % of all the students had experiences with sexual violence. Both girls and boys had been affected equally. 201 students, or 22.7% of the reported 885 respondents, indicated to have experienced sexual abuse by being asked by teachers for sexual practices in exchange for marks. These data show that sexual victimization is a profound experience of violence among the sample of this study. The following Figure 4 below summarizes incidents of sexual violence.

Figure 4. Experienced Sexual Violence (Note: As sexual harassment is a traumatic experience which should have zero probability; the scale was related to the different levels by using 1 for 1, 0; 2 = 1, 01 to 2, 0; 3 = 2, 1 to 3, 0; 4 = 3, 1 to 4, n = 924; as 895 students did respond to the scale = 96, 8 %, Source: Primary data, 2018)

Figure 5 gives an overview of the different levels of experienced violence by the different harmonized scales.

Figure 5. Experienced Violence (Comment: Physical and Psychological victimization had a four-level measure, 1 = Never, 2 = Once, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often. Structural Violence had a three-level measure 1 = Not at all, 2 = Sometimes, 3 = Very Often. Sexual violence had a four measure level, 1 = Never, 2 = Not in the past year but this has happened, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Many times, Source: Primary data, 2018)

As violence is an experience, which may harm already by being used once, and “no violence” in education should be the standard, it may be stated that 23.9 % of students suffer from physical violence at home and 23.2 % from physical violence at school; 18.9 % of students from psychological bullying at home and 22.7 % of psychological violence at school; 53.9 % from structural and 24.0 % from sexual violence. These are experiences of violence that are very high, especially regarding physical violence at school and sexual violence.

4.4. Mediating Variables: Aspects of Learning

The aspects of learning that determine the students’ cognitive ability to learn resulting in skills acquisition used in the study as definitive proof to show the effects and influence of the different types of violence on the students' learning will be examined. These aspects were academic, body, and general self-esteem as well as knowledge and school motivation.

4.4.1. Self-Esteem

Self-esteem was measured regarding body self-esteem, general self-esteem, and academic self-esteem. Concerning body self-esteem, students were asked to rate themselves on items, i.e., “I am pleased with my appearance” from 1=, not all, to 5= extremely positive. This led to a self-esteem with M = 3.48 (SD= 0.15). On general self-esteem, the students indicated how they felt about others by items such as “I feel that others respect me.” The scale led to a mean with M = 3.04 (SD= 1.31). The student's academic self-esteem was assessed on a scale of 1=, not all, 5= extremely, and they were asked to rate this statement “I feel confident that I understand things,” leading to mean M = 2.78 (SD= 0.13).

4.4.2. Motivation

The students’ learning motivation showed a determining and upbeat situation by the students. On a scale of 1= not at all, 3= very true, the students were asked to indicate what they were willing to learn, “one of my goals in class is to learn as much as I can.” The scale was answered with a mean M = 2.86 (SD= 0.28). Moreover, the students responded on their school motivation. They were asked to rate some statements about their motivation to be or not to be in school. For instance, “I really feel that I am wasting my time in school.” Students responded to this scale with a mean M = 2.78 (SD = 0.40). Above all, the health impairment was examined with the scale of 1 = not limited at all, 3 = limited for more than three months. They were therefore asked to indicate, “how long has your health limited you from eating, studying, bathing, and dressing?” Students responded with M = 1.50 (SD= 0.65). The statistics indicated that on their health impairment, they were relatively healthy. School and learning motivation and general self-esteem may be seen as stable. These findings are summarized in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6. Summary of Learning Mediators (Comment: Self-Esteem had a five-level measure, 1 = Not at all, 2 = A little bit, 3 = Somewhat, 4 = Very much, 5 = Extremely. Motivation had a three-level measure, 1 = Not at all true, 2 = Somewhat true, 3 = Very true. Health impairment had a three-level measure, 1 = Limited for more than three months, 2 = Limited for three months or less, 3 = Not limited at all, Source: Primary data, 2018)

4.5. Learning Outcomes

In this section, the different levels used in grading the various subjects and the subject grades are on the students' questionnaire. The school subject grades under examination were the English language, French language, Mathematics, and ICT or Science grades. The respondents were asked to indicate their grades in the subjects mentioned below. The grades were calculated using five levels (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Grading Level of Subjects (Grading had five measurement levels, 1 = Fail, 2 = Average, 3 = Fair, 4 = Good, 5 = Very good, Source: Primary data, 2018)

By reflecting the data on grading together, 779 (85.4%) of students (out of the total of 912) indicated fail scores in at least one of the essential subjects. This shows acute problems of educational quality already on the level of the system’s output.

These problems are correspondingly also reflected in the rate of class repetition. The dependent variable of class repetition indicated N = 898 and 26 missing data. Only 26.3% of the students or 236 individuals had never repeated a class, 369 or 41.1% had repeated once, and 293 (32.6%) had repeated their courses twice or more times with an M = 2.06 (SD = 0.765). In all, 662 (73.7%) students were repeaters of at least one class. This repetition rate in comparison to international standards [61,62] is very high, and this shows a low level of teaching quality in Cameroon.

The descriptive data outputs show that many students have experiences with the different types of violence. As violence is an experience that may harm already by being used once, “no violence” in education should be the standard. The findings showed that about 23 % of students suffer from physical violence at home and school, about 20 % of students suffer from psychological bullying at home and school, 53.9 % from structural violence, and 24.0 % from sexual violence. In addition to structural violence, students do not see themselves as very healthy and have nearly three months’ experience of being limited by health problems. The overall incidents of violence are high, especially regarding physical violence at school and sexual violence. In the mediating aspects of learning, students show high learning motivation of 2.86 on a scale from 1 to 3 and a high inspiration to school motivation. General self-esteem is rated on a scale from 1 to 5 at 3.48.

The data show that more than 85% of students in the sample did go through the experience of failing in school in one or more subjects. 74% of students repeated at least one year of schooling, and 33 % of students made the experience repeat more than twice. This shows the generally low quality of education in families and schools. More than 50 % of students do not read at all or less than 30 minutes a day. This relates to the fact that only a few families have significant book ownership. Public library facilities are generally rare in Cameroon, and schools typically do not have standardized libraries. Therefore, access to written products is difficult to get.

5. Discussions

The results of the study showed that violence at home and school affects learning outcomes and negatively influences educational quality. Therefore, the study results indicated the crucial role of violence in general. This showed an acute prevalence of violence at home and in school, in the dimension of physical victimization, psychological victimization in regards to their self-esteem, motivation, and sexual violence. This has been aggravated by the bad socioeconomic or, better still, the students' demographic background. The school played a double role in regard to these experiences of violence: Firstly, schools had not been able to compensate for the negative experiences at home. The social background played a crucial role in experiencing violence as well as in regard to academic outcomes. Secondly, schools added to these negative experiences of violence especially to those students, who did already have negative experiences. Alarming are results as those who showed that more than 20 % of students had the experience to be offered better marks for sexual services. So, schools do not serve as safe places for education. The educational inputs from Cameroon's setting indicate that the academic achievement related to the parents' social and educational background played an essential role in the study. The socio-economic background is usually seen as being determined by occupational status, education, and wealth [60]. The socio-economic background explained 32 % of the variance of learning output (measured by class repetition). This indicated a fragile socio-economic status of the students, which was too high compared to international studies [60]. This is responsible for the students' diminished self-esteem and learning motivation [58]. Students from low socio-economic homes are disadvantaged in school because they lack a conducive and academic home environment [60].

It is noticeable that sexual violence is visible in Cameroon. Already at the level of school attendance, as seen in this sample, men are preferred to be the ones to be eligible for unlimited levels of education while the females are allowed the basic level of education because it is evident that they would be married off someday. This, therefore, is hierarchical, symptomatic gender and structural violence [63], which needs great attention. In addition, more than 20 % of girls and boys had been affected by sexual violence. Schools do in this regard not function as safe places. A part of the students is coming with experiences of domestic violence to school. Domestic violence is a serious issue of human rights, public health, and significant social consequences [64]. One cause of violence is domestic, and while in school, this is intensified. In addition to this and as a contribution to the evolution of scientific discourse, despite the theories on violence [15,17,19,24,60,65,66] with the following results of this study, it shows that the system of education in the context of Cameroon needs a concerted action because it is preoccupying from the findings thereby, lacking quality. The discourses become relevant in regards to a general narrative of violence as a misnomer and disregard the different forms prevalent in schools in Cameroon. On the whole, [27] as a conceptual theory accentuates and remains relevant to the study in regards to the importance of the cause-effect approach of the findings of this study. Consequently, the findings make visible, that the discourse of educational quality, needs to take into account the basic understanding of the schools as safe places against violence. Violence at schools is not acceptable, and especially sexual harassment by teachers do contradict the role of schools. In addition, educational quality plays an important role in overcoming social imbalances in society. However, if schools do add to violence experienced at home, they do even deepen social barriers and manifest social injustice. As the international discourse on educational quality is mainly studied in high- and middle-income countries, this dimension of educational quality needs to be considered especially when working in low-income countries.

5.1. Schools as Open Spaces Void of Violence

In the context in which we operate, children's education must be fashioned to how much they learned and the degree of personal, social, and developmental benefits they acquired. This is affected if the school space has excellent spacious and conducive infrastructures for learning and strengthens accessibility, shuns gender disparity, an inclusive school climate, responsible behavior, freethinking, tolerance, and democratic actions [2,8]. This should lead to a school environment where compassionate and collaborative communication [67] fraught with interpersonal relationships takes center stage void of violence like what obtains in the school setting in Cameroon. The biased nature of epistemological and ontological truths requires the clarification of these issues in any human community. Therefore, the resolution of such differences in our perceptions would improve our decision-making prowess [4] which leads to ‘safe space’ [68] guided by openness and respect for diversity, thereby leading to the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality [24]. Consequently, the schools as open spaces offer students the opportunity to understand the world by acquiring real-world values through learning experiences, transforming learning into a fun exercise and not a nightmare or hated dynamic, collaborative learning environments that link the face-to-face to the online approach. This destroys the hierarchical power structures, less collaborative learning, and promotes a sense of equality with a collegial functioning of teachers and students, leading to real action and innovation [5]. Schools are expected to be safe havens for students, protecting them from outside dangers and fostering their social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Unfortunately, however, schools are also places in which students are being victimized, more frequently by their peers, but also by their teachers [13] including their socio-economic background.

5.2. Proposals to Improve

• Research on teacher training about strategies concerning violence management strategies acquired in the pre-service and in-service training processes would be important. This will open avenues for future work and or research that would throw more light and insights on educational policy and teacher training regarding the role and importance of human capital development in the framework of educational quality.

• The understanding of religious leaders' or pastors' perception of violence in the family and school and how it affects the learning of students is important to study as they influence society and education as important stakeholders.

• Sexual violence and human rights violation in education in Sub-Sahara Africa needs to be further investigated as being an important aspect of quality in education and peaceful society.

• School environments should be safe places by giving room for individual development and ensure no pressure to become or pretend to be like somebody else, without pressure to impose one’s perspective on another and no fear of being denied. In such a setting, there is safety for learning to live with differences, conflicts, uncertainty, and freedom to express one's views with respect and changing one’s mind when one is faced with something new.

• Landscapes should be pluralistic and centered on preparing students to make informed choices and fully participate in society in ways that are reflective, democratic and discursive, by erasing violence in the society. The pluralistic landscapes represent cultures, gender, race, ethnicity, religious backgrounds, class, and socioeconomic status.

• It will be in the whole society's interest to begin by reflecting the impact of violence in all facets of society. The sensitization can target various spheres and institutions of the community beginning with the family, all educational stakeholders, and the print and audiovisual media organs. The sensitization should be structured.

5.3. Limitations

The design of the study was quantitative and adopted the administration of questionnaires. Hence, it did not allow getting the learners' perceptions on some of the trends noticed in the answers to be able to substantiate if the information provided in the questionnaires correlated with their perceptions. On the one hand, this was helpful as many students would not have spoken about sexual violence. On the other hand, problems with inverse items in the pretest showed general problems of understanding questionnaires. The participants’ self-responding to sensitive topics might have negatively affected their comfort level and, hence, influenced their responses.

The absence of instruments related to the various types of violence, cultural background and the age diversity of students was a challenge. The development of instruments related to the cultural background, types of violence known in Cameroon and their availability including statistic background information are still a necessity.

The study did not have the possibility to get a fully randomized sample as the government was preselecting schools. By this faith-based institutions and better schools had not been part of the sample and girls had been overrepresented. Further investigations might overcome these problems.

6. Conclusion

Schools should ensure no pressure to become or pretend to be like somebody else as open spaces. There is no obligation to agree with anything. There is no pressure to ‘win’ a discussion or competition to impose another’s perspective. There is no fear of being denied recognition as a whole person because you think differently. In such a setting, there is safety for learning to live with differences, conflict, and uncertainty, freedom to express one’s views with respect and change one’s mind when faced with something new. Above all, there is the opportunity to contemplate the inclusion of different perspectives in the continuous construction of our dreams and future [44].

Acknowledgements

I express profound thanks and appreciation to Bread for the world (BfdW) for providing the bursary that inspired the study on violence in Cameroon and led to this paper’s realisation and immense thanks to Prof. Dr. Annette Scheunpflug for correcting, reading and providing suggestions for improving the work. Special thanks to everyone and networks that are not mentioned but contributed in different ways to bring about the success of this study.

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