Most teenagers from Moldova hit by bullying - survey

Chisinau, 26 February /MOLDPRES/ - About 90 per cent of the teenagers (6-12th forms) from Moldova are hit by bullying (hostile behavior of excluding and mocking at, humiliating somebody); some of the teenagers are victims, while the others are aggressors or witnesses. This is data from a survey made in Moldova for the first time ever, unveiled in Chisinau on 25 February.        

According to the survey, most pupils, over two thirds (75.6 per cent) are witnesses of bullying. Victims account for about 70 per cent of all pupils who faced bullying situations and the proportion of aggressors is of over 40 per cent.   .

The survey titled, Bullying among teenagers, shows that, in terms of physical aggression, in Moldova, the situation is practically identical with the global tendencies. According to a report by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), every third teenager of the world admitted that he/she participated in scuffles at school and in extra-school environment. Just as all over the world, in Moldova too, the physical aggression between pupils was reported by every third pupil who participated in the survey.    

One of five pupils (20 per cent) signaled that pupils from junior schools are afraid of those from the senior school. Such situations are felt, to a great extent, among boys (one of four boys) and pupils from rural settlements (one of four). Every fifth pupil considers that the pupils from poor families are more often harassed by their fellows. The aggressive behaviors between pupils are present also outside school and are reported by every fourth respondent (25 per cent).      

”Adults often trivialize or underestimate the scope of bullying and the damages it can trigger. The new technologies and innovations should be used for schools’ modernization, for encouraging the cooperation between pupils and teachers and for promoting a safe school environment. It can seem a quite ambitious task. Yet, I would like to quote Nelson Mandela, who said: “It always seems impossible until it is done,”   a UNICEF country representative in Moldova, Desiree Jongsma, said.  

Presently, more countries of the world are interested in the elaboration of education policies for preventing and combating the bullying, including the online harassment. For this, Moldova’s parliament, along with UNICEF, started a string of public consultations on this phenomenon, on the platform of the parliamentary commission for culture, education, research, youth, sport and mass media.     

„The mankind is developing. We tried to learn from history. And our capacity to  observe our rights, our capacity to overcome the phases of intolerance comes from the lessons learnt from history,” Deputy Parliament Speaker Monica Babuc said.  

Four regional public consultations, scheduled for March and April, are to be organized on the findings of the study on Bullying among teenagers.   

The survey was made by the Sociopolis Consultancy Centre, with the support of UNICEF Moldova, in partnership with the Education, Culture and Research Ministry, in 2019.