• Education Education proposes to control the social networks of students to fight against cyberbullying
  • Education Spain is the EU country with the most fuss in the classroom: almost 10 minutes per class ordering students to shut up

9.5% of primary school students (aged six to 12) in Spain have been victims of bullying and 4.5% have bullied other students at some point. These percentages are more or less repeated in the case of cyberbullying, a scourge increasingly frequent at younger ages and that does not let children rest even when they are at home, away from their peers. The problem is not tackled by the sense of impunity that bullies have: 90% of students who witness bullying do not stand up to the aggressor.

The data come from the State Study of School Coexistence in Primary Education, prepared by the Ministry of Education after interviewing more than 37,000 students aged six to 12, teachers, parents, principals and guidance teams. In this work, the first to be carried out at the national level and with these dimensions, schools from all the autonomous communities and also from Ceuta and Melilla have participated. Minister Pilar Alegría presented her main results on Wednesday, in the Plenary Session of the State Observatory of School Coexistence.

The work, coordinated by Juan Carlos Torrego, professor of Didactics and School Organization at the University of Alcalá de Henares, points out that, although in Spain there are "low levels of conflict" and both teachers and families make "a very positive assessment of coexistence" (with grades of more than 8 out of 10), "obstacles prevail that must be addressed, Therefore, the prevention and detection of these situations is essential because of the important consequences they can entail".

One of these obstacles is bullying, although the data provided by this study are much lower than others previously carried out -the ANAR Foundation speaks of 25% of students suffering harassment, the NGO Educar es Todo places it at 22%, the NACE association estimates it at 20% ...-, although it is true that this research focuses only on the Primary stage, where aggressions are lower than in Secondary although they are growing more, especially at 10, 11 and 12 years old.

It is surprising that, when the minimum age allowed to access social networks is set at 13 or 14 years, there are 9.2% of children under this age who say they have received teasing or threats from a classmate through mobile, Internet or video games.

Another 4.6% admit to having been the author of these mockery, threats or lies against other colleagues through these same digital media to which they should not legally have access. In other words, students recognize that they bully through social media rather than face-to-face at school.

The authors believe that the fact that the percentage of students who perceive bullying is twice the percentage of students who consider themselves to be bullying may be due either because the same student may be harassing more than one classmate" or because of "the lack of recognition of responsibility on the part of the bully, who are not aware that they are hurting or hurting the dignity of their peers".

Witnesses

That children do not have enough maturity to realize that what they do is wrong is evidenced, in addition, by all the analysis that the work does on the witnesses: there is 10.6% of students who admit to having witnessed cyberbullying to other children.

How did they react? 7% admit that they did not know what to do and very few notified their parents (20%) or teachers (30%). They didn't even talk about it with other colleagues (14%). Even fewer confronted their aggressor (9.8%), meaning that 90% of witnesses to bullying cases do not stand up to the bullies.

82% of the students surveyed did not even feel bad when they witnessed the aggression, which shows that there is some feeling of not distinguishing what is right from what is not wrong.

In fact, there are a minority of students who, on a theoretical level, say that, if they witnessed a situation of harassment, they would try to help the victim because he is their friend. Only 37% say so. Only 33% say they would talk to those who mess with that partner. And 43% would tell teachers.

This passivity detected in children does not appear, however, when asked what they would do if an adult tried to harm them. Here the majority would tell parents (80%) or teachers (51%), which suggests that students of this age are much more aware of adult aggressions towards them than about those that can occur among the minors themselves.

And that, according to this study, child sexual abuse is much rarer than bullying. The teachers, principals and counselors consulted maintain that the first is "a non-existent reality in their centers", although a study by Save the Children states that, in Europe, between 14% and 28% of girls and between 4% and 12% of boys have suffered sexual abuse in their childhood.

Conflicts

The conflicts that most abound in schools have to do, according to students, with disruption in the classroom and with discomfort between peers. Their parents believe that the situations that occur most in the centers are the breach of classroom rules and interruptions in class.

Teachers add to these problems the lack of respect of students, fights, waste of time in class, boycott, permanent noise ...

In general, the students' assessment of their teachers' abilities to create conditions that favor coexistence is quite good, more than what their parents consider. In more than half of the centers they have mediation programs and in 24% it is the students themselves who act as mediators, intervening directly to talk to each other and try to resolve conflicts, always supervised by an adult.

Teachers complain, above all, about the bureaucratic burden that accompanies the management of coexistence in schools. Spain, according to the TALIS 2018 report, has the lowest percentage in Europe – 60% – of teachers who have received training in their formal education in student behavior and classroom management.

  • Internet
  • Bullying
  • Secondary education
  • Articles Olga R. Sanmartín
  • Education

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