Administrators Urged to Conduct Analysis of Bullying in Schools to Find Solutions
By: , December 12, 2022
Photo: Dave Reid
Child Protection Specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Dr. Charlene Coore Desai (centre), listens to Head of Department, Psychology, Sociology and Social Work, University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr. Herbert Gayle, during Part Two of the CPFSA Anti-Bullying Workshop, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston today (December 12). Also listening is Ananda Alert Officer, Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Annadjae Roberts.The Full Story
School administrators are being encouraged to conduct an analysis of bullying within the school environment, in order to implement effective measures that will stop the practice among students.
Child Protection Specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Dr. Charlene Coore Desai, made the appeal during Part Two of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) anti-bullying workshop.
The workshop was aimed at sensitising several stakeholders on the serious implications of bullying and was held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, today (December 12).
Dr. Desai argued that before attempting to track the practice, properly assessing the different types of bullying within schools will promote better buy-in from all levels of staff, to limit the practice.
“Data is power… research is power. As adults, we often do not know the types and amount of bullying that’s taking place in our schools. So, we need to be in contact with what is happening in our schools,” she emphasised.
Dr. Desai said that according to reports, one in four adolescents, aged 13 to 15, has reported being bullied in the last month.
“So, you want to document all confirmed and suspected incidents of bullying [and] develop a logical and timely reporting system [to] log the incidents of bullying. We want to make sure this reporting system is confidential and [for] all the school [staff] to be familiar with the reporting procedures,” she advised.
School staff, according to Dr. Desai, should extend to bus drivers, cafeteria workers and the school nurse, among others.
Additionally, she informed that coming out of a recent report conducted between the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, better education about the negative implications of bullying will help to reduce the practice.
“This particular report reviews youth prevention education programmes from over 1,000 controlled and empirical trials, catalogued in 74 meta-analyses involving nearly half a million participants. So, there’s a lot of information from all different countries around the world related to bullying,” Dr. Desai pointed out.