The Importance of School Safety and Ensuring Safety

Abstract

This study addresses the conceptual framework of school safety, factors affecting safety, problem areas encountered, and solution suggestions for ensuring safety. School security is considered as a critical factor in terms of students' academic achievement, psychological and social development, and a safe school environment must be created to ensure the sustainability of educational processes. In the study, firstly, the conceptual dimension of school safety is discussed and it is emphasized that safety should be ensured not only by physical measures but also by psychological and social measures. Then, the factors affecting school safety and current problem areas were examined in detail. Physical security deficiencies, psychological threats, problems in social relations and security gaps around the school were identified as the main factors that negatively affect educational processes. The roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in ensuring security in schools are discussed, and the roles of school administrations, teachers, students, parents and public institutions in the process of creating and implementing security policies are explained. Finally, studies conducted in Turkey and the world were examined, and it was determined that security policies are handled in a multidimensional manner in international studies, whereas in Turkey, the focus is more on physical security measures. The results of the study show that ensuring school safety should not be limited to physical measures, psychosocial support mechanisms should be strengthened and stakeholders should act in cooperation. Making safe school environments sustainable is considered as a fundamental requirement to ensure that educational processes are efficient.