‘Law of silence’ and lack of resources complicates the fight to make ‘bullying’ a State issue

The Ministry of Education wants bullying to become a priority for governments, but the absence of specific economic items and official statistics complicates the task.

“It has to be ‘bullying’ a priority public administrations”. These are the words of the Minister of Education. Jose Manuel Bar, who want bullying to be treated in the same way as it was done with sexist violence years ago: taking it out of the private sphere and making it a state matter. This is at least the aim of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Education. Another thing is reality.

There is no specific economic item. There are no official statistics on bullying among students. The figure of the welfare coordinator in education centers doesn’t come together very well. Many school administrations continue to hide cases under the rug because they do not know how to detect them or do not want to lose prestige. And this is despite the fact that violence among students is the main problem in tackling another educational scourge in Spain: school failure.

Bar insists: “Bullying cannot be tackled by a quarterly conference. We need a cultural change every day. A culture of peaceful coexistence should prevail,” he said.

“Bullying cannot be tackled with a quarterly conference. We need a cultural change. We need peaceful coexistence to succeed” -José Manuel Bar, Minister of State for Education

An example of administrative negligence regarding ‘bullying’, State Observatory for School Coexistence (consisting of 40 members from all walks of society, including various ministries) began its journey. 2007but it’s pretty much parked beyond the work plan it’s approved all these years. December 2021. A few weeks ago, its elements came together once again in this ministerial attempt to turn bullying into a State issue. x-ray of the condition.

The organization has published guidelines (focusing primarily on teachers) to be able to: prevent knowing how to detect cases of harassment (something not easy because law of silence classrooms) and know how to intervene to stop them. There are also recommendations for compensation for victims. At least that’s the theory. In practice, victims feel almost compelled to switch centers to escape hell. In the most extreme cases, bullying can result in suicide.

No matter how good and ambitious they are, the guides do not neglect to include. only orientations. Be Transferred qualifications in educationEach autonomous community has to take its own measures. “If we had been very specific, we would have invaded forces,” explains the Foreign Minister.

Silence

The bar admits silence it makes everything worse. Both the silence of the victims who do not report their ordeal and the silence of the school addresses that cover the cases in order not to lose prestige. “It is essential that schools and institutes fight this problem vigorously. What is not visualized cannot be attacked. Most of the time, the problem is that it is noticed too late,” he concludes.

The first problem that will eliminate violence in the classroom, lack of official statistics. There are many studies on bullying in the classroom, but they are all from nonprofits. Anar Foundation or Save the Children. Data is devastating. One out of every four male and female students (24.4%) perceives bullying in their classroom. The children surveyed believe that neither the teachers nor the school administration is doing much to stop bullying. 45.4% think that their teachers do nothing and six out of ten (61.7%) state that the central administration remains idle. Likewise, half of the students and students admit that their classmates don’t lift their fingers to end the harassment.

“Political Commissioners”

The data is alarming and a lot in the Ministry of Education. But the goal is to have official statistics, to take an institutional x-ray of the problem. For this, the Pilar Alegría department commissioned university professor María José Díaz Aguado to conduct a study on “indicators of coexistence”. The report will be published throughout 2023, from which other statistical x-rays will be commissioned.

The Secretary of State isn’t too worried about unequal placement. welfare coordinator figure, a teacher who sometimes has to take time off where she doesn’t have to watch for potential cases of ‘bullying’. An important position imposed by law for both education and child protection – as was the covid case manager at the time. But some autonomists boycott the figure. For example, Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP), president of the Community of Madrid, called them. “political commissioners”.

The truth is, Education is a ministry. limited financial resources and, for example, ambitious publicity campaigns that really stir the conscience and contribute to changing the culture of violence in school are not permissible. In addition, each region has the autonomy to decide where to invest the public resources distributed by the ministry.