By Chukwudumebi Norbert ATTA
Introduction
The issue of bullying in school and other forms of victimization experiences in schoolgrounds deserve serious consideration by education administrators and other stakeholders in the education process. Bullying is a socio-psychological problem that affects not just the confidence of the ‘victims’, but the ability of school pupils and students, to achieve their educational goals. Hence, bullying in Nigeria’s public schools have monumental negative impact on the educational and overall development of the students, on the education dreams of parents and guardians for their wards, and the nation’s educational goals.
We would in this piece, give a definition or description of bullying, including listing some of its types, explore its existence in public post-primary (or secondary) schools; look at its effects in the school-setting or environment, then recommend ways of tackling bullying – a demon that is damaging our school children and school system.
Understanding bullying and its aspects
What do we mean by bullying? A difficulty that is inherent in attempting a definition of bullying is that fact that its understanding varies along age and historical period, and as an English word which is translated into other languages, there are bound to be an absence of exact equivalent (in other languages). Hence, we would rather settle for a working definition that expresses the core of what bullying is, or strongly at the fore, all the existing understanding of the term or theme.
Hence, what we mean by bullying is any repeated aggressive deportment or conduct that hurts or is intended to hurt another physically, emotionally or mentally. Smith (2014) cites Olweus (1999a, b) and Ross (2002) as defining bullying as repeated aggressive acts against someone who cannot easily defend themselves. Bullying could be one-to-one or group-wise (where a bully co-opts others to help with the bullying of another person) act. The chief aim of all forms of bullying is a quest to have/gain power or control over the other person(s) (Bersag, 1989).
When we talk about bullying in the school environment or ground, it is necessary to note that despite its general term that is bullying, that bullying is of different types. Scholars are not agreed on an exhausted list of the types of bullying that exist, with some adding new categorization and others new names to existing types. Hence, while Benton (2011) notes seven types of bullying, as follows: verbal, physical, being left out, property damaged/stolen, racism, sexual and cyber; Smith (2014) highlights the following: physical, verbal, social exclusion and rumour spreading, and more recently, cyberbullying.
In the forgoing, we understand that bullying appears in different forms, and at different place. Nevertheless, while bullying may occur at home, church, at work etc., our concern in this piece is on the bullying that occur at school setting, and its impact in the educational development of individual students, teachers, schools and the country at large.
Bullying in Schools vis-à-vis bullying in Nigerian post-primary schools
Incidences of bullying in the school abound, and are gradually becoming a common phenomenon (Fareo, 2015; Egbochukwu, 2007; Kabusa, 2018). Bullying is sometimes direct, and at other times indirect. Olweus (199: 10, 11) holds that a student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students… In order to use the term bullying, there should also be an imbalance of strength (an asymmetric power relationship); the student who is exposed to negative actions has difficulty in defending himself or herself and is somewhat helpless against the student or students who harass.
In Nigeria, bullying is observable in schools, including in the public post-primary schools, where it goes on in one form or the other, with grave implications for the victim, the state and the entire populace. One notes, for example, that instances abound of students-to-students physical and verbal bullying. Definitely, the most common forms of bullying in Nigerian public post-secondary schools are those two – physical and verbal bullying, but that does not rule out other types (of bullying) either. Bullying in the Nigerian public schools have serious consequences for the education and academic well-being of the student victims, for the teachers and school staff, the parents and guardians, and for the entire education sector. For this reason, the phenomenon of bullying in schools demands serious considerations and attention, by stakeholders in the education sector.
Examples of bullying in the Nigerian public schools abound, but could be seen clearly in cases where student-prefects, and senior class student mistreat and manhandle the junior students, including flogging them, both on serious trivial excuses. Cases exists of one or two such prefects kneeling down an entire class – in the assembly ground or in the classroom, and either berating or even flogging them, for one excuse or the other, or of such ‘seniors’ inflicting temporal and permanent bodily injuries on the bullied.
What often fuels bullying in the Nigerian public post-secondary schools are many, but they include an absence of adequate supervision of the students, including the school prefects, by school authorities. Hence, the administrative and teaching staff would ordinarily see some of the school prefects and some senior students, who are actually bullies, as helping to maintain discipline or order in school. Yet, all the bullies do is to leave a trail of broken lives and shortened dreams – drop outs, underachievement in academic work, and even mental problem, due to the bullies’ viciousness towards their fellow students (see Dake et al., 2009).
The cost of bullying in schools
Bullying in school costs a lot, to the students and to other participants: teachers, parents and the State. Among the many effects are some that are temporal and others that are longstanding.
In fact, the monumental negative impact cannot be gainsaid. Thus, what Richardson and Hiu (2018: 3) highlight about bullying in general applies to education, that
-Both victims and perpetrators (and to an extent, witnesses; UNESCO, 2016) of bullying in childhood suffer across various dimensions, including personal social development, education, and health, with negative effects persisting into adulthood.
-For policymakers and professionals working with children, high rates of bullying amongst children should raise warning flags regarding child rights’ failings (e.g. child protection, education, health, and so on).
-Moreover, bullying amongst school-aged children highlights existing inefficiencies in the social system, and the potential for incurring future social costs in the communities and schools in which children live their lives.
The overall effect of bullying on the part of the bullied is huge. It affects principally their educational development, including instilling fear, anger, lack of trust etc. It thus interferes in a student or child’s learning, including resulting in such untoward behaviours like skiving, or even dropping out of school completely. Related to the foregoing, bullying leaves the bullied academically and mentally challenged or disturbed, leading to their low performance in their class work, and/or in some core subjects. In all, bullying hinders, or stops students, from advancing smoothly in their academic pursuits or realizing their personal educational goals.
Bullying has effects on the teacher, and other school staffs. Among other things, bullying causes discomfort and disorder in the lives of the students, and by extension in the classroom, the teaching-learning environment. It makes the work of the teacher more arduous, with the bullied students often become scared and less interested in learning or their class work. Bullying makes for a dysfunctional classroom, which does not help a teacher in the task of teaching.
The parents and/or guardians of bullied students are affected by the bullying that their children or wards suffer are subjected to in schools. The fact is that the negative effects of bullying in schools rubs off on parents and guardians, leaving them distraught and disappointed in the face of their ward’s low performance in tests and class-work, anxiety, health challenges etc., The parents and guardians as critical stakeholders in the education of their children and dependents, are affected by the commonness of bullying in school.
On another note, the phenomenon of bullying in schools has effect on the individual schools, the entire school system, and on the education sector in the country. Since in this case, the post-primary public student(s)’ education is affected by the incidence of bullying, which affects their sticking to and achieving the necessary objectives of their education, the impact is far-reaching, including: making a particular school less appealing to student(s) or school-aged children, resulting in dropping out of students, and other effects, that negatively bear on the entire school and education system in Nigeria.
Bullying is, therefore, an unwelcome development that portend no good for the nation’s education system. Here in Nigeria, its cost to the education system is enormous. Hence, there is need to prevent its occurrence or at least reduce it. Thus, arresting bullying in schools (or reducing it) would be a great service to Nigeria’s education sector, and to the nation’s development at large. But how should bullying be fought in the public school system?
Conclusion: Towards arresting bullying in public post-primary schools
Arresting the occurrence of bullying in our public school system is a task that demands immediate consideration and attention, given the danger that the phenomenon pose to individual students, their families, teachers and the nation’s education sector. Among other considerations is a need to have a broad board, made up of stakeholders in a child/children’s education (including parents, teachers, host communities, and administrators) to confront the demon of bullying. Secondly, wider publicity should be given to the incidence in the traditional medias, both as a warning to bullies and as a call to the bullied to report such to the appropriate authorities or inform their parents, so as to nip instances in the bud before it escalates. Also, teachers and other school workers should be attentive to changes in the lives of their pupils and students, so as to be able to detect cases of bullying before it damages a child’s life.
References
Fareo, D. O. (2015). Bullying in Nigerian Secondary Schools: Strategies for Counseling intervention. Educational Research and Reviews, 10(4), 435-443.
Hymel, S., & Swearer, S. M. (2015). Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction. American Psychologist, 70(4), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038928
Benton T. (2011). Sticks and stones may break my bones, but being on left on my own is worse: An analysis of reported bullying at school within NFER attitude survey. Slough: NFER
Rigby, K., Smith, P.K.(2011), Is school bullying really on the rise?. Soc Psychol Educ 14, 441–455 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-011-9158-y
Brank, E M.; Hoetger, L.A.; Hazen, K.P. (December 2012). “Bullying”. Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 8 (1): 213–230. doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102811-173820
Peter K. Smith (2014), Understanding School Bullying: Its Nature and Prevention Strategies, SAGE
Richardson, D, Hiu, C. F (July 2018), Developing a Global Indicator on Bullying of School-aged Children, UNICEF Office of Research | Innocenti Working Paper
Egbochuku, E., (2007), Bullying in Nigerian Schools: Prevalence Study and Implications for Counselling, Journal of Social Sciences 14(1): 65-71 DOI:10.1080/09718923.2007.11978400
Kabusa, H., (2018), Effects of Bullying on Learning Among Secondary School Students in Mubi Educational Zone of Adamawa State, Nigeria
Dake JA, Price JH, Telljohann SK. (2003), The nature and extent of bullying at school. J Sch Health. 2003 May;73(5):173-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2003.tb03599.x. PMID: 12793102.
Besag, V.E (1989). Bullies and victims in schools: a guide to understanding and management. Open University Press. ISBN 978-0-335-09542-1
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