Survey: One third of high school students suffered bullying last year 

Teenagers sit in the City Park / Skopje, September 2020 / Photo: EPA-EFE / GEORGI LICOVSKI

Nearly two-thirds of high school students surveyed in Skopje believe there is peer violence in their school, and about a third have been victims of some form of peer violence in the past year, according to a survey conducted by the Human Rights Institute. From December 2021 to February 2022, 995 students and 255 teachers were surveyed on the topic of bullying, hate speech and discrimination. Both students and teachers believe that hate speech is most prevalent on social networks.

According to the research findings that were presented today at a conference, the majority of respondents believe that only a small part of bullying is reported, and it mostly happens in primary school. In terms of gender, girls, unlike boys, find that peer violence is more prevalent in their school. The students think that hate speech is most often found on social networks and in the past year about a quarter of them have been exposed to some form of hate speech.

The research concludes that it is very difficult to talk about personal experience with hate speech from a victim perspective. While many students find that hate speech is a common occurrence at school, only a handful are willing to speak up and report it if they have been the victim of hate speech.

Interview with psychologist Ivan Hristov: How to recognize if your child is a victim of peer violence?

President of the Institute for Human Rights, Margarita Caca Nikolovska, said that children hurt each other in different ways - physical attacks, which may not be strong, but have a discriminatory intent, then verbal insults about appearance, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Teachers and students, she said, were pleasantly surprised and answered their questions, but were reluctant to make these issues public and report discrimination, bullying and other harassment.

- There are surprisingly bad results for what is happening in schools - both primary and secondary. Discrimination is very present, and social networks play a very big role. Children know how to be incredibly strong in insulting, and on the other hand children who are insulted and discriminated against do not have great opportunities for defense. Their only defense is to report it, and the question is where they will report and who will react at the moment - whether the teachers or the school psychologists who are of great importance. All this must be highly channeled and there must be a greater willingness to take action. The general public should be informed and children and parents and teachers should be able to react, said Nikolovska.

According to her, the curricula should contain content for recognizing discrimination, which means it in children, how to avoid it and how to protect them. In preventing peer violence, she stressed, parents, teachers and children themselves have a big role to play in encouraging them to report and having the tools to respond.

Gordana Blazevska-Spiridonova, a school psychologist at the Skopje high school "Nikola Karev", stressed that it is important for children to distinguish between forms of violence and to recognize that there is, for example, emotional and social violence.

- That it can be a form of violence if we isolate a child, do not hang out with him, do not call him on his birthday, throw him out of the group on the social network we have formed and that child can have consequences. They think they have a right to such behavior. All forms of verbal and psychological violence are present and practiced. And we are an environment that normalizes various forms of violence because of which children read such messages and consider it socially acceptable behavior. The only way to deal with it is to talk to children regularly that this is unacceptable behavior, to develop empathy / compassion, which is a basic barrier to cruelty. If we do not recognize how uncomfortable someone feels when we tell him one way or another, then we will be cruel thinking that we have the right to express ourselves - said Blazevska-Spiridonova.

According to Deputy Minister of Education and Science Lulzim Aliu, to change the situation in which two thirds of the surveyed high school students confirm the presence of bullying, requires greater proactivity both institutionally and personally, and the battle for this phenomenon in society begins in the family where the child learns moral values.

- Education is the best mechanism to systematically influence the behavior of entire generations and for a positive transformation of society. In this regard, the Ministry of Education and Science with a number of partners implements several projects, activities and major reform processes that change the basis of the education system. New curricula and learning materials guide students towards civic values ​​related to gender equality, inclusiveness, multiculturalism, tolerance and respect for diversity. The new teaching materials do not support prejudices and present people from vulnerable groups as equal members of society. "We are working to create a school climate in which all students feel accepted and supported," Aliu said.

He added that the Ministry of Education and Science will take into account the presented results of the research and they will help him in creating future policies. He said that a new program is being prepared for psychological counseling of parents of students and students who during the educational process show behavior inappropriate for their age, experienced some form of violence, drastically reduced learning success, etc.

The Institute for Human Rights is implementing the project with financial support from the Embassy of Germany and within it digital courses have been prepared for teachers and students to recognize these negative phenomena, which are available online: https://www.ihracademy.org.mk /

An Analysis of the impact of social and mass media in creating public opinion and its consequences expressed through building stereotypes, discrimination, bullying and hate speech among high school students has also been prepared. All products (analysis, videos, reports, visualizations) are available on the website of the Human Rights Institute: https://www.ihr.org.mk/mk/tekovni-proekti/zashtita-od-diskriminacija-bulingi-govor-na-omraza

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