THE DEPARTMENT of Education’s office in General Santos City held an orientation and capacity building seminar on child protection policies to enable school heads and guidance counselors to have a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

The event held on May 5 was attended by school heads, guidance counselors, guidance advocates and program advisers.

School Governance Operations Division Chief Victorino Fuentes discussed the important role of the school in the implementation of policies for the protection of children such as DepEd Order No. 40, s. 2012, DepEd Order No. 03, s. 2021 and other related laws.

Fuentes said that the rising number of child abuse cases is disturbing.

He stressed the need to strengthen the Department’s relationship with other government agencies to curb incidents of child abuse.

Various stakeholders including the city’s Women and Children’s Police Desk, Social Welfare and Dev’t Office and Barangay Council for the Protection of Children pledged to help DepEd prevent child abuse.