To fight against bullying in schools, the government wants all schools to have teams trained to deal with this phenomenon.

To reinforce these teams, student ambassadors will have to be appointed.

From the start of the next school year, colleges and high schools will all have to equip themselves with teams specially trained to deal with bullying at school, and student "ambassadors" to fight against this phenomenon, the government announced on Friday. The fight against harassment, "it's a fight, (...) it involves everyone", summarized the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, who came to present these new measures with the wife of the head of the 'State Brigitte Macron in a college of Ballancourt-sur-Essonne, in Essonne, in the great Parisian suburbs.

Since September 2019, a "turnkey" anti-bullying program has been tested in six academies, where teams from certain establishments were specifically trained in handling bullying situations and where students were involved in combating this phenomenon, in particular thanks to the designation of "non-harassment" ambassadors.

Student ambassadors

This program will now be generalized to all 5,200 colleges and 3,300 high schools in France, explained to AFP the director general of school education, Edouard Jeffray. Each establishment will have to equip itself with a team "of several people trained in the specific handling of harassment, thanks in particular to distance training which will be put online from September," he detailed.

All colleges and high schools must also have student ambassadors against bullying, "at least four to five per establishment".

According to Edouard Jeffray, "what works best in this area is when the students talk to each other".

With this in mind, the quality of the school climate will also be measured in each establishment and the college life councils, which bring together student representatives, will be invited to take up the subject in order to imagine actions in their establishment.

"We still have some progress to make"

Since 2019, the right of students to attend school without harassment has been enshrined in law.

The government has also extended the opening hours of numbers against harassment (30-20) and cyberstalking (30-18), and increased the number of academic advisers on the subject.

They are now 350 in France, against 30 in 2014 according to Edouard Jeffray, and intervene in the most difficult cases of harassment, or to train teachers.

"We still have progress to make" judged Mr. Blanquer.

"In recent years, we have managed to reduce harassment a little, (…) but we have not succeeded in reducing cyberbullying", a phenomenon which has worsened in particular during the health crisis, he said. recalled.