By Ben Oroko
Bullying of children within the school environment is a complex issue and cannot be prevented unless all responsible parties take an active stance against the issue and proactively work together to promote equality as part of the efforts of preventing any unlawful discrimination within the school environment.
Since teachers are the people with whom children spend most of their time with, it is critical to take a look from their perspective before we judge their actions or inactions towards bullying.
With so many potential and hotspot areas for bullying within the school environment, it is often very hard for teachers to be everywhere and see everything unless it occurs in the one place where they have full control – the classroom.
It is equally important to emphasize that teachers have a noble and moral duty to stop and prevent any form of bullying under their watch, failure to which it will be regarded as abetting crime within the school.
When it comes to responsibility in relation to bullying, teachers should also exercise their mandate in discussing new school policies and challenge ineffective ones as well as initiating the discussion of bullying with their students and colleagues.
In this case, teachers can also be of great help to parents and students who have been affected by bullying incidents by providing a first-hand perspective, along with advice and guidance on how to address the incidents and stop them from recurring in future.
Bullying is unpleasant and hurting to the victims but what has attracted attention among education experts and managers are the short and long-term effects on the learners who fall prey to bullying.
This is what should be the bigger focus for schools, teachers and parents considering that apart from the obvious physical trauma in cases when bullying was physically aggressive, victims of bullying experience a wide range of short-term psychological effects including lowered confidence, anxiety, fear and depression.
Sadly, most victims suffer in silence, but even so, they cannot hide the signs that something has been done to them to disturb their wellbeing.
In that respect, awareness of the signs of bullying makes it easier to discover it and help students in dealing with the internalized emotions.
The writer is a communication practitioner and correspondent based in Kisii.
