Several ministries and relevant institutions will work as partners to implement the Strategy for Curbing School Violence 2012-2015, drafted in cooperation with the UNICEF Office in Skopje and adopted by the government nearly two weeks ago.

It aims at preventing any kind of violence between students in all elementary and high schools, developing stimulating climate and coexistence and safe school environment.

At its promotion in an elementary school in Gazi Baba municipality in Skopje, UNICEF Representative Sheldon Yett said issues could not be solved in an isolated manner and solely by individuals, instead teachers and the local environment had to join forces and be more included. "Preventing violence is much cheaper and more effective than to react while it is happening. In fact, our goal is to stop violence from ever happening," Yett noted.

The importance of inter-institutional approach in solving the issue of violence among students was emphasized by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Spiro Ristovski. He also underscored the importance of involvement by the local self-government and support from the interior and health ministries.

"We all bear accountability in the process of curbing violence within the society. Together we will continue eradicating asocial phenomena in schools," Ristovski said.

Education Minister Pance Kralev stated that the strategy had a preventive role with strictly defined protocols on what kind of measures should be taken by teachers, parents, principals and the local self-government in cases of violence in schools.

"Figures show that we have managed to curb violence in schools a little bit, but a lot of work is ahead of us before declaring success in eradicating deviant actions. I believe that the implementation of the strategy will yield results in curbing school violence in the future," Kralev stressed.