Liam Twomey
Question:13 Dr. Twomey asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a national anti-bullying strategy for all schools has not been introduced; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30480/04]
View answerThursday, 25 November 2004
Questions (15)
Oral answers (3 contributions)
I am aware of the issue of bullying in schools and my Department has moved to tackle the issue on a number of fronts. The education of students in both primary and post-primary schools on anti-bullying behaviour is a central part of the social, personal and health education curriculum.
SPHE is now a compulsory subject both at primary level and in the junior cycle of post-primary schools. The SPHE curriculum provides for the development of personal and social skills including self-awareness, respect for others, self-esteem and communications skills, all of which are important elements in addressing the issue of bullying. In primary education, the issue of bullying is addressed in the SPHE curriculum, in the strand called Myself and Others, from infant classes onwards. In second level education, the issue of bullying is addressed from first year onwards in the SPHE curriculum at junior cycle, in the module called Belonging and Integrating.
My Department, in its guidelines on countering bullying behaviour in schools, has provided a national framework within which individual school management authorities may meet their responsibilities for implementing effective, school-based policies to counter bullying. These guidelines were drawn up following consultation with representatives of school management, teachers and parents, and are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the particular needs of the school.
Each school is required to have in place a policy which includes specific measures to deal with bullying behaviour within the framework of an overall school code of behaviour and discipline. Such a code, properly devised and implemented, can be the most influential measure in countering bullying behaviour in schools.
Does the Minister accept the code may work better in some schools than in others? I would not raise this issue if I did not think there was a better way of tackling this. Will the Minister take the time to meet representatives from Trinity College who carried out a pilot programme in County Donegal which has proved extremely successful in that the instance of bullying there has been reduced dramatically.
These representatives came before the Joint Committee on Education and Science. Given their findings, which have been adopted nationally by the Norwegian Government without the carrying out of a pilot project, will the Minister consider implementing this type of policy? While I realise there must be changes in different areas for different reasons and that policy must suit each particular school, we could at least try to have best practice in this area, which we do not have at present. If we used this type of programme, we could achieve best practice. It is not an issue that is heavily resource dependent.
From my personal experience, significant advances have been made in the tackling of bullying, especially with primary schoolchildren, because there is awareness among children of what bullying is and that they can complain about it and tackle it. The schools are the best place to deal with this because they know their school profile — the children, the parents and the support they can get from other bodies to develop a policy.
Deputy Enright referred to the anti-bullying research and resource centre at the department of education in Trinity College, under the direction of Professor Mona O'Moore. Professor O'Moore is known to me as she was on the board of management of the school at which I taught. She recently took the opportunity to discuss her anti-bullying intervention programme with me at my constituency clinic, which, before the rest of the country turns up, is for my constituents only. The Department funded the replacement costs for the pilot study in County Donegal, which Professor O'Moore is anxious to extend to the entire country. For this year, she sought in-service training among other measures, but such issues must be set out well in advance so that parents and others know exactly what day schools will be closed, when the in-service days will take place, how that trainers will be organised etc. The teacher education centre in my Department will conduct ongoing work with the centre in Trinity College to find how we can develop this because bullying is an issue with which we are all concerned.