Reports on violence
towards children worldwide identify bullying as the most frequent and damaging
form of violence encountered by the overwhelming majority of children at some
stage during their time in school. Persistent bullying has lifelong psycho-social
effects on both victims and bullies and cases of suicide and criminal behaviour
respectively are all too common extreme consequences.Unhappy and frightened
students have a reduced capacity for learning caused by their unsettled
emotional state.
The UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence against
Children identifies that approximately 40% of children worldwide experience
bullying in schools.Bullying is identified as one of the major factors leading
to under achievement, non-attendance and drop out from school by children &
young peopl.
In Spain the national report “Estudio sobre la violencia y acoso escolar”, carried out in 2007
by Araceli Oñate and Iñaki Piñuel is based on surveys of 24.990 students
between 7 and 17 years. According
to the study, 23.2% of Spanish children have been bullied in the precering
month. Most of them show psychological damages: 53.7% have post-traumatic
stress symptoms, 54.8% suffer depression and 15% present recurrent suicidal
ideas.
It is
apparent that across Europe the incidence of bullying seems to be largely
unchanged over recent decades (2006 Council of Europe Handbook Bullying
Reduction in Schools – how to make a difference). However new forms of
bullying are emerging as lifestyles are changing. Increasing use of social
media by young people means that cyberbullying
is a growing problem taking over from other forms of bullying.
The Action Anti-bullying (AAB) project
is a European Commisson funded programme under the Daphne initiative. It is
designing and implementing a new anti-bullying programme in 25 pilot schools
from 5 EU countries (Romania, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and the UK). It draws on
the experience of existing programmes and practices originated by the project
partners in different cultural contexts and will provide further evidence of
effective approaches to the reduction of bullying in schools that will inform
the development of improved child centred, whole school strategies for adoption
throughout Europe.
The project will build on and
combine the strengths of each of the partner’s previous experiences and,
together with recent innovative developments in solution focussed learning
behaviour methodology and strategy, it will result in a coordinated range ot
staff and parent training materials applying a child centred, whole school
approach to the effective reduction of bullying in schools and in the home. The
project will develop an on-line whole school self-review instrument for the
monitoring of bullying and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the school’s
organisation for use in action planning and ongoing improvements over the
years..
Most students feel
safe in school most of the time. Schools are usually havens of peace compared
to their local community where acts of domestic violence and public order
offences are more common. Even so, if learning is to be ensured for all
students, schools have a duty of care to reduce the risk that students will be
made to suffer from any acts of violence in school, particularly bullying
Schools free from
violence, where students feel safe and secure, can create a climate for
learning which results in inclusive education for happy, committed and
motivated students and their retention in school-based learning through into
lifelong learning. The techniques and strategies for reducing violence and
promoting pro-social behaviour are very similar to the whole school approaches
that generate effective learning behaviour where all members of the school
community form productive relationships for learning. Consequently the programme
is based on achieving the components of a model school for violence reduction The
programme applies many of the approaches which good schools use to create a
productive and inclusive learning environment. Initiatives to reduce bullying
should therefore form part of an integrated whole school strategy to create a
productive environment in which learning will flourish. By implementing
strategies to reduce violence, schools will improve their overall provision for
inclusive education
The specific objectives of the
project are:
a) Raised
awareness of all members of the school community - children & young people, parents and school staff about
the harm that bullying causes and how children & young people can be
protected, including solutions to the problem of rising incidents of cyber
bullying in connection with the use of social networks. 6000 young people; 180
school staff; about 4000 parents will be aware of solutions to protecting
children & young people from bullying.
b) As a
result of staff training: Reduced number of incidents and impact of violence
against children at school, resulting from an improved safe and secure whole
school environment of “convivençia”.
c) Also as a
result of staff training: Improved strategies and responses to incidences of bullying
that will address the causes of bullying and help avoid any recurrence.
d) Training
and empowerment of parents and all school staff as change agents in reducing
bullying and in the education of children and young people in peer led
strategies.
e) Further cooperation
between schools and schools with NGOs, local school administration and other
outside agencies in the reduction of bullying by adopting an improved programme and a system of exchange of best
practices.
f) The
development of a school review instrument for monitoring bullying and
evaluating the school organisation for bullying reduction, resulting in
improved knowledge on effective programmes for the reduction of bullying at
school.
g) Publicising
experience widely
The achievement of the project objectives will result in a
widely publicised and available range of effective strategies,training
materials, techniques and actions for the reduction of bullying in schools and
the implementation of the UN and European Conventions on the Rights of the
Child.
Because the processes for reducing bullying in schools are
identical to the processes for reducing other forms of violence and many of the
strategies for improving learning behaviour, the training programme and school self-review
instrument will help schools develop an effective whole school environment of
convivençia where violence towards
children and young people in all forms will neither be tolerated nor allowed to
flourish and where children’s ability to learn and their attainment is
significantly improved.
The results will be increased attainment, life chances and wellbeing for
all children in schools that implement the programme.
The Partners in the programme are:
In Italy - Icaro Project coordinator is a non-profit Consortium of Social
Cooperatives created in 1995 with the aim to formulate a concrete answer to the
problems of groups at risk of social exclusion With A.N.S.I. – The National Association of Italian Schools
In Spain - CECE is a
non-profit employers´ and professional organization founded in 1977. It
represents a wide educational sector in Spain from nursery school to university
level.
In the UK - NCfLB at the
University of Northampton provides consultation, advice and training in how to
improve learning behaviour and reduce violent/bullying behaviour in schools, in
child care settings and in the home.
In Slovenia – OMAMS
is a Slovenian public primary school with experience in the implementation of
anti-bullying campaigns leading 4 other schools in the programme
In Romania - ISJP
is a Romanian Regional School Inspectorate, under the authority of the Ministry
of Education. Its main task is to coordinate and to control the schools of all
levels in the county of Prahova.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario