Exploring the Complexities of School Bullying and the Need for a Global Educational Approach

UCan a plan solve everything? If the arsenal of measures presented on Wednesday, September 27 by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, to fight against school bullying was rather welcomed by educational stakeholders because of the strong political signal that it represents, all agree that There is no miracle solution to counter this scourge, which affects nearly one in ten students.

Harassment comes from much more complex mechanisms than political speeches suggest. It corresponds to group phenomena, rejection of difference which go beyond the harasser-harassed binary. Witnesses, through their silence, become accomplices and it is often very difficult for educational teams to disentangle the precise role of each person.

UNESCO states: anti-harassment programs are only effective if they respect a “global educational approach”. In this area, France is struggling to catch up. Although the Scandinavian countries took initiatives in the 1990s, it was not until 2013 that the fight against these actions was enshrined in French law.

Empathy courses will not be enough; all national education must opt ​​for concern for others: from rectorate offices to classrooms. A colossal cultural and systemic change. It is about re-examining nothing less than the human relationships between students, between students and education staff, between education staff themselves and between the different strata of the hierarchy.

From the national education mediator to the Defender of Rights, experts agree: the student’s voice must be listened to more. The child or adolescent must be understood as a whole: a head and a body, knowledge and emotions, a life in and outside the classroom. However, has not national education gone too far in an almost ethereal conception of students, centered on the acquisition of knowledge to the detriment of all the other aspects of a fulfilled and happy schooling, in a school oriented towards competition more than cooperation?

Strengthen cooperation between students

The famous studies from the Program for International Assessment (PISA) show this: France is failing to develop psychosocial skills. French students are more anxious, less confident in their potential and less inclined to cooperation than those in other countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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