In expanding and deepening measures to combat the phenomenon of intra-school violence and school bullying sends the Ministry of Education with the introduction of a special, targeted bill.

Although it is not yet known when this bill will be tabled given the political situation (it was due to be presented to the cabinet on Friday, which was delayed), ministry circles emphasize the importance of this legislative initiative for school and extracurricular life.

What does the bill provide?

Draft law on preventing and combating intra-school violence and bullying within the framework of the program “We live together together, break the silence!” provides for the following measures:

• doubling the number of psychologists and social workers working in schools;
• creation of a school life adviser in each division of the secondary school,
• strengthening subsidiary bodies such as the Centers for Interdisciplinary Assessment, Counseling and Support (CEDASAS) with an increase in the overall budget,
• cooperation with the competent authorities for targeted activities in schools,
• incorporating craftsmanship into the mandatory curriculum from kindergarten to high school
• Bullying Diaries (for high school students) and School Mediation: Prevention and Resolution of School Violence (for students in grade 6 and older)
• trainings for more than 125,000 teachers in specialized subjects,
• The 166 new curricula and the new school textbooks that will accompany them educate the spirit against violence and discrimination (for example, through texts in language and literature courses).

Program “We live together TOGETHER, we break the silence!” complements the above actions and at the same time represents, according to Ministry of Education circles, “a multifactorial, organized and specialized response of the Ministry of Education and Culture to the phenomena of intra-school violence and intimidation.”

According to anecdotal information from the ministry, the program is designed for students, parents, teachers and educators to prevent, combat and protect children and adolescents from all forms of violence and school bullying, as well as to create safe, inclusive and healthy school communities and educational environments that can contribute to harmonious psychosocial development and progress of all pupils and students. The program is funded by national funds allocated by the Ministry of Health.

Action groups are formed to combat school violence

At the school unit level, the Principal, along with their designated teacher (in primary education) or school life counselor (in secondary education), will be responsible for dealing with violence and bullying in the school and will act as a point of reference and information about school matters bullying . They will conduct educational activities and awareness programs in their school units and will deal with cases of intra-school violence and bullying in direct contact with the Office’s four-man action team to which they belong.

The Department of Education will have working groups of four, including the director of education, an educational consultant, a psychologist and a social worker, who will oversee the program at the local level. The initiative groups will prepare annual reports with their observations and conclusions on cases of school violence that have taken place, along with their proposals, and submit them to the regional director of education, who will regularly inform the Ministry of Education and Culture, ensuring the formulation of future policies against school violence based on data.

An expert committee will be set up at the central level, tasked with monitoring and monitoring the program and drawing appropriate conclusions. The Committee will take over the development of special protocols for the prevention and elimination of intra-school violence and bullying. In this way, the scientific integrity of the program is achieved.

Finally, the draft law provides for institutional recognition of the possibility of cooperation between agencies and structures acting against intra-school violence and bullying.

A platform is being developed to report incidents of violence, even anonymously

The platform has been developed by the DIOFANTOS Institute for Computing and Publishing (ITIE) in collaboration with a central committee of experts. In it, students will be able to report incidents by filling out a specially designed incident report form. ANONYMOUS or last name, while parents will be able to report incidents by last name.

This will allow more victims of school bullying to speak up and get support. You will need to sign in with Panhellenic School Network (for students) or Taxis (for parents) codes.

The platform will also contain incident management protocols, best practices, and targeted outreach materials to inform the educational community, parents, and the general public, thus serving as the Ministry of Education’s central digital hub against intra-school violence and bullying.

The report will be sent to:

• Action Team, where the recipients of the reports will be the School Violence and Bullying Officers of the respective school unit, who will be able to deal with these incidents immediately,
• Action group of the competent department of education.

In case the problem cannot be solved at the school level, the school initiative group turns to the competent team of the Department of Education for support.

Finally, the petitioner will be given the opportunity to follow the progress of their petition through a specially customized platform.

Systematic trainings for teachers

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) will develop new and enriched teacher training materials.

The immediate goal is to train initiative groups of education departments and staff of school units to combat violence and bullying in schools during the first year of the program.

School violence and bullying in Greece and abroad

Some recorded data on the phenomenon demonstrate the importance of purposeful actions already in the first grades of school.

According to a nationwide survey conducted for Child’s Smile (2022), the main reasons why young people (16-20 years old) provoke bullying are diversity, in particular different ethnicity (85%), sexual identity (82 %) and mental abilities (82%).

In addition, according to the same survey, only 40% of those who were bullied as children sought help, with parents being the first choice for 18% and teachers for 6%.

Verbal attack and emotional blackmail are the first associations with the word “intimidation” in 8 out of 10 Greeks.

In addition, according to the Greek Safe Internet Center ITE National Survey on Online Habits (2021-2022), only 35% of children who have been victims of cyberbullying have sought help from an adult.

AT International level, according to UNESCO on the subject:

• Around the world, one in three students has been the victim of school bullying by peers in the past month. In particular, in Europe this ratio is 1 in 4 students.
• Globally, the percentage of students experiencing school violence decreases with age, with the highest percentage occurring at ages 10–15.
• Only 5 countries have reduced the percentage of students who are victims of school bullying and physical violence.
• Between 2015 and 2018, incidents of bullying in schools increased by 4% on average across OECD countries.
• Finally, according to the WHO, boys tend to bully others more than girls: about 1 in 12 boys (8%) said they bullied others at least 2-3 times in the past two months, compared with 1 in 20 girls (5% ).

Source: RES-IPE