South Africa is the country with the highest bullying rate for the grade 4 age group in the world according to Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). An estimated 55 per cent of grade 4 pupils in South Africa are bullied on a regular basis.
Bullying can threaten students’ physical and emotional safety at school and can negatively impact their ability to learn. The best way to address bullying is to stop it before it starts. There are a number of things school staff can do to make schools safer and prevent bullying.
Getting Started
Assess school prevention and intervention efforts around student behaviour, including substance use and violence. You may be able to build upon them or integrate bullying prevention strategies. Many programs help address the same protective and risk factors that bullying programs do.
Assess Bullying in Your School
Conduct assessments in your school to determine how often bullying occurs, where it happens, how students and adults intervene, and whether your prevention efforts are working.
Engage Parents and Youth
It is important for everyone in the community to work together to send a unified message against bullying. Launch an awareness campaign to make the objectives known to the school, parents, and community members. Establish a school safety committee or task force to plan, implement, and evaluate your school’s bullying prevention program.
Create Policies and Rules
Create a mission statement, code of conduct, school-wide rules, and a bullying reporting system. These establish a climate in which bullying is not acceptable. Disseminate and communicate widely.
stop bullying act now 