SCHOOLCHILDREN VIEW OF SAFETY AT SCHOOL AS A PRECONDITION OF QUALITY (SELF-) EDUCATION

Schoolchildren‘s safety at school as a condition for quality education. The present article examines the attitude of pupils from Forms 5 to 12 who live in families of different social characteristics towards safety at school. To disclose the attitudes towards safety at school of pupils coming from families of different social characterictics, a written survey method was chosen for the empirical research. 2, 064 pupils of Forms 5 to 12 in Lithuanian comprehensive schools participated in the written survey. The pupils‘ survey covered the following aspects: the feeling of safety; the experience of relations with teachers and peers;  and the experience of being subjected to humiliation by peers and teachers because of the social and finacial situation of one‘s family or its lifestyle. As proved by the research outcomes, pupils‘ safety at school was related to the social characteristics of their families  and parents‘ social illnesses. The research outcomes brought out the following trends: the better was the parents‘ social status, the safer was the financial and social situation of the family,  and the safer the pupils felt at school. KEYWORDS: pupils, quality education, social characteristics of family, safety, school