“No child alone. A priority for the Ministry of Education is the prevention and treatment of intra-school violence”, emphasizes Niki Kerameos
The cooperation of family, school and experts is the key to dealing with the phenomena of school bullying, as experts have argued for years and point out that the goal should be to prevent such situations, but if this is not possible, then early intervention should be done . For Angeliki Roumeliotou who is a curator of minors and a social worker, the issue is for society and the state to primarily prevent “where everything is still happening casually, in the general population of the schools and also of the local community”. Dr Antonia Torrens, educational psychologist, tells APE-MPE that through the Live without Bullying platform for which she is responsible, “we have reports for the first time for children in kindergarten and the first grades of primary school. These phenomena were much rarer in the past.”
For her part, the Minister of Education Niki Kerameos states to APE-MPE that “the prevention and treatment of intra-school violence is a priority for the Ministry of Education. In this direction, we have undertaken multiple, mutually complementary initiatives, with immediate and longer-term results. We proceeded to recruit twice as many psychologists and social workers (from 1,600 in 2019, 3,200 in 2022), we instituted the School Life Council, we strengthened supporting bodies such as KEDASY, we have developed partnerships and conducted teacher trainings on relevant issues”.
He adds: “We continue to expand and deepen our actions to tackle the phenomenon by introducing a special, targeted bill to promote positive patterns of relationships within the school community. For example, with this action groups are created to deal with school violence, a platform is developed for reporting incidents of violence even anonymously. In addition, we systematically train teachers in this direction. We say no to school bullying, we stand next to every child so that no one feels alone. We break the silence, we live harmoniously together.”
The situation is getting worse
The evidence shows that incidents of intra-school violence are increasing, or at least more are being reported. Most of these incidents take place inside the school but some also outside it. But since it is about students, wherever the incidents take place, the role of the school is crucial.
“The distinguishing difference that defines these phenomena as school bullying and that separates them from the – known of old – adolescent conflicts is the systematicity, the targeting without provocation and the desire to cause pain. They develop either as physical attacks, or as psychological-emotional violence where the use of threats, blackmail, insults, slander, humiliation, but can even take the form of sexual harassment. And we cannot ignore another form of bullying, that of online harassment which is also dangerous, especially when it develops into a regime of anonymity, group targeting or through hate speech, racism and intolerance, phenomena that seem to have increased through the misuse of the internet , the uncontrolled access, the absence of control mechanisms but also the incomplete digital knowledge of a large portion of parents”, notes Mrs. Roumeliotou speaking to APE-MPE and adds that incidents of school violence are very often brought to the prosecutor’s offices or the courtrooms after they have an identity of offense and criminally hellish acts.
The deterioration of the situation is also confirmed by Mrs. Torrens: “bullying behaviors are observed in very young children, compared to the past. We have reports for the first time for children in kindergarten and the first grades of elementary school. These phenomena were much rarer in the past. Greece is ranked fourth worldwide among 41 countries, in terms of the percentage of total students who have witnessed an event of school bullying against a classmate. Now one in three young people, according to research, have experienced school or online bullying.
The immediate need for interventions and the special-targeted bill of the Ministry of Education
According to the experts, the goal is, of course, primary prevention, but if this is not possible for a number of reasons, then intervention must be done secondarily when there is a suspicion that certain behaviors may lead to incidents and thirdly when an incident occurs.
“The big issue is to catch up. Mainly! With primary prevention where everything is still happening casually, in the general population of the schools as well as the local community. That is, to create conditions that prevent the genesis of these phenomena. Not to mobilize the mechanisms just to deal with them but to prevent them, since we know the factors that give rise to them. This means strong schools, bold to name and manage, staffed and empowered with tools. And also strong social services in the community. But we also need secondary intervention, that is, where some children suspect us of being at high risk and remedial actions must be taken. In other words, to prevent their development and consolidation. And finally, tertiary intervention, that is, where we have open incidents and we must intervene through a collaborative approach. Parents, students, school, community, institutions, centers of power must all sit around the same table when they have to handle a child’s case”, Mrs. Roumeliotou points out and adds that an important lack that is found is the absence of action protocols that they will be based on studies, on scientific data, on tested programs.
The holistic and cooperative approach to these issues is also the goal of the new bill that is expected to be presented by the Ministry of Education. As for example with the platform for reporting incidents of violence with the possibility of anonymous reporting in which students will be able to report incidents by filling in the specially configured incident recording form anonymously or by name, while parents will be able to report incidents by name. This will enable more victims of school bullying to speak up and be supported. It will be required to log in with Panhellenic School Network (for students) or Taxis (for parents) codes.
“Because as we know it is very difficult especially for children – for a number of reasons – to talk easily about the problem they are facing, it takes specialized knowledge and approach of the people who will be called to support them. So it is not so simple to tell them: “talk and a solution will be found”. Of course this is true, but on the condition that the listener and potential supporter will apply some basic principles of communication with the child, because otherwise they can unwittingly make the situation worse”, explains Antonia Torrens.
The platform will also contain incident management protocols, good practices, as well as targeted informational material to inform the educational community, parents and the wider public, thus acting as a central digital hub of the Ministry of Education against intra-school violence and bullying.
The training of teachers is still critical, for which the new bill foresees that the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) will develop new and enriched material for the training of teachers. The immediate goal is the training of the Action Teams of the Directorates of Education and those responsible for dealing with School Violence and Bullying of the school units within the first year of operation of the program.
“The new bill foresees a series of very worthwhile actions. I believe that in order to gradually increase the chances of reducing incidents of juvenile violence in our schools and neighborhoods, we must apply holistic approaches to addressing these phenomena. That is, a number of interventions within the school, for the children themselves, is not enough. Continuous training of teachers on various techniques and applied methods of anthropocentric approach to bullying is needed, parents need help and of course a continuous and stable political will is necessary to create the infrastructure for such an approach. There are tools and ways,” says Antonia Torrens, who has created the Live Without Bullying action of KMOP, where there are online trainings for teachers of all levels, as well as a separate training for parents. “They are free, approved by the Department for Education and have helped thousands of teachers and parents across the country since 2016,” concludes Ms Torrence.
Niki Kerameos: No child alone! A priority for the Ministry of Education is the prevention and treatment of intra-school violence
“No child alone! The prevention and treatment of intra-school violence is a priority for the Ministry of Education. In this direction, we have undertaken multiple, mutually complementary initiatives, with immediate and longer-term results. We proceeded to recruit twice as many psychologists and social workers (from 1,600 in 2019, 3,200 in 2022), we instituted the School Life Council, we strengthened supporting bodies such as KEDASY, we have developed collaborations and carried out teacher training on relevant issues” she emphasizes in her statement to APE- MPE the Minister of Education Niki Kerameos.
At the same time, he points out that “by introducing skills workshops in our schools, we are cultivating mutual respect, inclusion, respect for human rights, sex education, while we are establishing 166 new curricula that are imbued with an anti-violence spirit.”
“We continue to expand and deepen our actions to address the phenomenon by introducing a special, targeted bill to promote positive patterns of relationships within the school community. For example, with this action groups are created to deal with school violence, a platform is developed for reporting incidents of violence even anonymously. In addition, we systematically train teachers in this direction. We say no to school bullying, we stand next to every child so that no one feels alone. We break the silence, we live harmoniously together” concludes Ms. Kerameos in her statement.
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