Behind the numbers: Ending school violence and bullying | UNESCO
Published in 2019 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP, France © UNESCO 2019
Author & Editor: UNESCO
Year: 2019
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School-related violence in all its forms is an infringement of children’s and adolescents’ rights to education and to health and well-being. No country can achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all if learners experience violence and bullying in school. This UNESCO publication provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of global and regional prevalence and trends related to school-related violence and examines the nature and impact of school violence and bullying. It reviews national responses, focusing on countries that have seen positive trends in prevalence and identifies factors that have contributed to an effective response to school violence and bullying. Addressing school violence and bullying is essential in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and SDG 16, which aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies. Monitoring progress in this regard requires accurate data on prevalence and trends in school violence and bullying, and on how effectively the education sector is responding to it.
This publication aims to contribute to monitoring progress towards the achievement of safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments. School violence and bullying can be devastating for the victims. The consequences include children and youth finding it difficult to concentrate in class, missing classes, avoiding school activities, playing truant or dropping out of school altogether. This has an adverse impact on academic achievement and future education and employment prospects. An atmosphere of anxiety, fear and insecurity is incompatible with learning and unsafe learning environments can, therefore, undermine the quality of education for all learners. This publication builds on previous UNESCO work on school violence and bullying including publication of the School Violence and Bullying: Global Status Report (UNESCO, 2017), and we trust that it will be useful to everyone who has an interest in preventing and addressing school violence and bullying. We also hope that it will make an important contribution to the Safe to Learn Campaign, which aims to end all violence in schools by 2024, by raising awareness and catalyzing action to eliminate school violence and bullying.
This publication provides an overview of the most up-to-date evidence on school violence and bullying, including global and regional prevalence and trends, and of evidence from successful national responses to school violence and bullying. It is both significant and innovative because it: l brings together for the first time in one place a wealth of quantitative data from two large-scale international surveys, the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, which cover 144 countries and territories in all regions of the world, and from a wide range of other global and regional surveys (see Data sources in Chapter 1); l provides, again for the first time, an analysis of trend data from the same two surveys, to show changes in the prevalence of school violence and bullying over time; l presents regional snapshots of the status of school violence and bullying; and l includes qualitative data on national responses, based on a series of country case studies specially commissioned by UNESCO to increase understanding of the factors that contribute to a reduction in school violence.
Almost one in three students (32%) has been bullied by their peers at school at least once in the last month. In all regions except Europe and North America, physical bullying is the most common and sexual bullying is the second most common type of bullying. In Europe and North America, psychological bullying is the most common type of bullying. Cyberbullying affects as many as one in ten children. More than one in three students (36%) has been involved in a physical fight with another student and almost one in three (32.4%) has been physically attacked at least once in the past year. Information about sexual violence perpetrated by peers is limited but evidence from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that a schoolmate is more likely to be the perpetrator than a teacher, especially for boys. Globally, physical violence perpetrated by teachers is uncommon but, in some countries, children report high levels of physical violence at the hands of their teachers. Corporal punishment, which is a form of physical violence, is still allowed in schools in 68 countries and is frequently used in many of these countries.
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