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Half of world’s teens experience peer violence at school, Unicef finds


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Half of world’s teens experience peer violence at school, Unicef finds

By The Nation

 

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Photo Credit : Unicef

 

PHYSICAL FIGHTS and bullying are disrupting the education of 150 million 13-15-year-olds worldwide, according to a new report released yesterday by Unicef. Half of students in that age group are experiencing peer violence in and around school, the report found.

 

“An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in Schools” reports that peer violence is impacting student learning and well-being in rich and poor countries alike. The results are based on the number of children who report having been bullied in the last month or having been involved in a physical fight in the last year. 

 

“Education is the key to building peaceful societies and yet, for millions of children around the world, school itself is not safe,” said Unicef executive-director Henrietta Fore.

 

“Every day, students face multiple dangers, including fighting, pressure to join gangs, bullying – both in-person and online – violent discipline, sexual harassment and armed violence. In the short term this impacts their learning, and in the long term it can lead to depression, anxiety and even suicide. Violence is an unforgettable lesson that no child needs to learn.” 

 

The report outlines a variety of ways students face violence in and around the classroom. According to the latest available data from Unicef: 

 

  • * Globally, slightly more than 1 in 3 students aged 13-15 experience bullying, and roughly the same proportion are involved in physical fights; 
  • * 3 in 10 students in 39 industrialised countries admit to bullying peers. 

 

The research found there were 396 documented or verified attacks at schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017, 26 attacks at schools in South Sudan, 67 attacks in the Syrian Arab Republic and 20 attacks in Yemen. 

 

As well, nearly 720 million school-age children lived in countries where corporal punishment at school was not fully prohibited. 

 

While girls and boys are equally at risk of bullying, girls are more likely to become victims of psychological forms of bullying and boys are more at risk of physical violence and threats. 

 

In Thailand, the school-based Student Health Survey conducted by Department of Health in 2015 found that 29 per cent of students aged 13 to 15 years reported being bullied in the past month, and 26 per cent were involved in a physical fight at least once in the past year. 

 

“Children spend around a third of their day, five days a week in school. When children enter those school gates each day, it is our responsibility to make sure that they are safe,” said Thomas Davin, Unicef Thailand representative. “But sadly, we repeatedly see news reports about incidents of violence against children in Thai schools, sometimes at the hands of teachers whom we expected to protect them.”

 

Unicef Thailand is currently working with the Office of Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education, to strengthen the capacity of schools and education staff to address issues of bullying and violence in schools.

 

“We need to make sure that every school is committed to implementing the Child Protection Policy, to strengthen measures that would prevent violence and respond effectively if it happens,” Davin added.

 

“Most of all, we urge the school community, including principals, teachers, parents, and students themselves to challenge the culture of violence in classrooms and communities. Everyone must stand up and speak up to protect the well-being of our children.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30354394

 
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-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-9-13
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So kids fight and get bullied at school. Now tell us something we didn't know before lord knows how much public money was frittered away on this pointless exercise.

 

School is meant to prepare us for an adult world in which bullying, intimidation and violence  are part and parcel of living. The rough and tumble of life in the classroom and playground are small beer compared with the reality which lurks beyond the school gates.

 

Teachers who assault children should be dealt with firmly here and everywhere else. But the rest of the stuff cited in the UNicef report is part and parcel of growing up and won't change until our basic human nature does. 

 

It is bad enough that we are turning university students into snowflakes with "safe spaces" and the no-platforming of speakers with controversial views, without extending the softening-up process to secondary schools.

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16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Every day, students face multiple dangers, including fighting, pressure to join gangs, bullying – both in-person and online – violent discipline, sexual harassment and armed violence. In the short term this impacts their learning, and in the long term it can lead to depression, anxiety and even suicide. Violence is an unforgettable lesson that no child needs to learn.” 

Well said. 

 

Completely agree with those words. 

 

Schools have a responsibility to prevent such unacceptable behaviours. Any that are not making efforts to do so, are failing their students. 

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“School is meant to prepare us for an adult world in which bullying, intimidation and violence  are part and parcel of living. The rough and tumble of life in the classroom and playground are small beer compared with the reality which lurks beyond the school gates.”

 

You should perhaps consider the possibility that the behaviours being learned and reinforced in young minds at school are establishing and normalising the same behaviours in later life beyond the school gate.

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Most of all of us walking around in the world today have been there.Starting as a child if your a human or as a puppy or a colt,or as a cub,Etc. all living animals and humans born in the world go through a learning process to see who the leader is or the timid one or the follower.Finding out those that you ca rely on and those that you can't. It is called LIFE and life is not easy for 99% of the people or animals in the world. You find out how to belong and where you want to be  then go after it. If you do not wont  to even try to find your way in the world then just find yourself a hole to crawl into and quit relying on the rest of us to take care of you. As Lee Iacocca stated "You either Lead,Follow,or get out of the way".

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2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

“School is meant to prepare us for an adult world in which bullying, intimidation and violence  are part and parcel of living. The rough and tumble of life in the classroom and playground are small beer compared with the reality which lurks beyond the school gates.”

 

You should perhaps consider the possibility that the behaviours being learned and reinforced in young minds at school are establishing and normalising the same behaviours in later life beyond the school gate.

Antisocial traits are imprinted in children long before reach school age. That is primarily the fault of poor parenting -  or frequently virtually no parenting at all, since it has become routine for mothers as well as fathers to have "careers".

 

As Aristotle said more than two thousand years ago, "Give me a boy until he is seven and I will show  you the man"? 

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3 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Antisocial traits are imprinted in children long before reach school age. That is primarily the fault of poor parenting -  or frequently virtually no parenting at all, since it has become routine for mothers as well as fathers to have "careers".

 

As Aristotle said more than two thousand years ago, "Give me a boy until he is seven and I will show  you the man"? 

 

That is an interesting but unproven theory. Nurture vs nature.

 

Parents are no longer allowed to punish their children and children appear to be getting more poorly behaved. Yet 30 years ago there were no iPhones to document their bad behaviour.

 

I got bullied at school - it was awful - but it wasn't ignored by schools then. The punishments were stern. As a kid you just think that adults cant get you out of the situation.

 

Ultimately, you cant end violence in schools - schools are a microcosm of real life. I think that being over-protective is already having dire social repercussions nowadays - University kids needing 'safe spaces'. Better let them take their knocks early and grow from it.

 

I climbed a lot of trees as a kid. Only fell out of a few. Rarely did I land on my head.

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