One in four children in the UAE is being bullied, ministry reveals
The National
A quarter of all school pupils in the UAE are being bullied, the Ministry of Education has revealed.
though the UAE has fewer instances of bullying than the international average (of one in three pupils), there was no reason to be complacent.
To combat this, the ministry launched a child protection unit to monitor and respond to cases of bullying and abuse.
“That does not mean we should not be dealing with the problem and we have to put immediate action to deal with bullying to try to eliminate its impact.”
The unit aims to help pupils at all schools across the country by receiving reports of bullying from parents or teachers through a hotline, assessing the situation and then taking preventive measures to intervene and protect the child.
She said surveys carried out by the ministry revealed that verbal bullying was the most common in the UAE.
A group of child protection officers have been trained to work within the unit and receive calls from children or families seeking help in cases of bullying. They are responsible for taking necessary protection measures on behalf of the children.
Both verbal and physical bullying occur at girls and boys schools but she said girls’ schools tended to have more cases of the former and boys’ schools have more of the latter. She said bullying in all its forms — be it socially or online — effects children’s well-being.
Dr Amna Al Shamsi, assistant undersecretary of the activities sector at the Ministry of Education said that,
The Source
«Cyber bullying goes undetected and is the most silent,» said Ms Al Shamsi. «We have been training counsellors and staff at
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