PVACS is a cluster randomised trial evaluating the EmpaTeach intervention to reduce and prevent corporal punishment in primary and secondary schools in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Kigoma region, Tanzania. PVACS also includes a mixed-methods process evaluation and an economic evaluation.

EmpaTeach leverages principles from cognitive behavioural therapy to promote shifts in teachers’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours related to corporal punishment. The intervention consists of a 10-week peer-led set of sessions during which teachers learn emotional self-regulation strategies and alternatives to corporal punishment, including positive discipline and classroom management techniques.

PVACS builds on years of piloting and adaptations and it will provide some of the first evidence on the effectiveness of a school-based intervention aimed at reducing physical and emotional violence against children in schools in a refugee setting. The study will inform programming and service-delivery in Tanzania and other crisis settings.