Re-Engineering the Pupils' Awareness Level on Anti-Bullying Policy Through School-Based Interventions

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Every person has the right to be protected against violence and abuse, and pupils in schools are no exception. As teachers, you do all that you can to keep your pupils safe from harm. But you will not be able to keep a watchful eye on them all day. Such is the case when they begin to be bullied in school. And it happens due to limited awareness of the learners about the implementing rules. The study proposed school-based interventions to re-engineer pupils' awareness level on Anti-Bullying Policy.

METHODS

The researcher used descriptive qualitative research which identified the bullying tendencies of the learners in Grade Four. The researcher used the data gathering procedures namely: checklist, interview and focus group discussion; weighted mean to determine the level of bullying tendency; percentage rank was used to determine the ratio of the frequency falling in every category of the total number of respondents; anecdotal records of the learners were used to identify the common violations in the classrooms made by pupils related to bullying practices which were used in formulating the research problem, drafting the review of related literature and studies, determining the research design and methodology, preparing research tools, conducting data gathering procedure, presenting and interpreting results, drawing conclusions, writing recommendation, and preparing the research output.

RESULTS

The study revealed that an attempt to stay out of trouble tops the rank on learners' level of bullying tendency. Other data such as refuses to accept responsibility for his negative behaviors, gets excited when conflicts arise between others, is good at hiding negative behaviors or doing them where adults can't notice and loves to win at everything are also interpreted as always. Data show that in terms of physical bullying, hitting/ kicking/ punching are the top violations done by the pupils in the classroom. Leaving someone out on purpose is the last thing on their minds.

DISCUSSIONS

The study revealed that pupils have a high level of tendency to bully others. Thus, bullying should not be taken lightly as it can cause serious problems to all the pupils concerned. Implementation of interventions which include creation of checklist for learners, establish intervention strategies to be used by the school for dealing with cases of bullying behavior, and create a support group to address bullying behavior should be properly utilized.