Aggressive behaviour in schools: something needs to be done

Measures are being put into place by the Ministry of education, of the thorn that affects 10% of school children. The subject is also getting the politicians involved. The figure shows that Monaco is within a similar average to the rest of the world. Which does not excuse the figures in any way, but has attracted enough attention to start doing something about it.

Various associations have been pushing for something to be done in terms of awareness of bullying in schools. Parents and teachers need to open up more of a dialogue and the actions that are currently being tried, followed through and adapted.

The initiative at the school Charles III in the 5th class, was launched this year. All the children are explained what the problems around bullying imply, and are taught to recognise it, acknowledge it and how to deal with it when they witness any form of bullying such as verbal, physical or psychological. Depending on the success of the program, it will then be adapted to each age group and incorporated into the school curriculum in Monaco.

Children will always be children, and sometimes rather cruel and ruthless amongst each other. Bullying also exists amongst adults in the corporate world, but here it generally tends to be subtle and more psychologically driven. Through this initiative being implemented in Monaco, it is definitely a way of pinpointing the problem, acknowledging that it is serious, and dealing with it at the source. Children don’t always realise the impact or consequences of their words or acts, so hopefully, by being made aware of this, and knowing that children are a lot more receptive, the problem should know a big decline. For the hard-headed children, peer pressure will have an impact in the fact that children will now be able to stand up for each other.

It will be interesting to follow and see how successful this initiative is, once fully integrated into the school program. If it is successful, how many schools will follow the program on an international level? Maybe in the future, corporate bullying will know a decline as well, due to the future generations being coached already at a young age.