New Zealand Government Focuses On School Bullying
Bullying in schools has been a problem ever since one can remember. It has been present in schools all over the world and though the forms of bullying may have changed over time, its effects are undeniably unchanged. That is why the government of New Zealand has decided to focus its attention to this particular hazard that their school children may face.
Education Minister Christ Carter announced last week that New Zealand schools will be required to have concrete measures to put a stop to bullying, or at least to deal with it. This is due to the slew of bullying reports from various schools all over the country. The New Zealand Herald reports:
Mr Carter said the initiatives include web-based resources, student materials and new action by the Education Review Office (ERO).
“ERO will now focus attention on individual schools to ensure that they have strategies in place to combat bullying,” Mr Carter said.
From term three this year ERO will ask schools whether incidents of particular types of bullying have occurred in their school.
Mr. Carter hoped that by specifically asking about bullying, schools without targeted anti-bullying programmes would be encouraged to make their schools safer places for all their students.
Obviously, I do not live in New Zealand and this report does not affect me directly in any way. Just the same, reading about such initiatives coming from the government is always a positive thing. The fact that different governments realize the need to take action in order to ensure the safety of children in their school premises is something that every parent should see in a positive light.
To digress a little bit - I was just wondering, how do children in New Zealand bully their peers? And how do the victims of bullying react and deal with such actions? Perhaps it is not any different from what our school children in the United States experience.
Another important point that I got from the report is that Children’s Commissioner Dr. Cindy Kiro is carrying out another program called Independent School Safety Report. So what’s different about this study? Dr. Kiro emphasizes that the perspective of children will be highlighted in her study, ensuring that the voices of the children will be heard. That, of course, is important as they would have information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
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Posted on July 7th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, Bullying, News, People Involved, School Safety Issues, Students
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