Aggression in school through pupils‘ eyes

Abstract

School harassment and violence are gradually being recognized as some of the most important problems of modern education systems.
The purpose of this study is to examine pupils‘ opinion on the presence of aggression at school, the measures being taken, and to generate suggestions from the pupils themselves to address the problem. The study includes a total of 174 pupils aged 11 to 18 years old from Varna, Dobrich, Shumen, Silistra, and Targovishte.
The majority of pupils have witnessed aggression (89.1%), and every second one (52.9%) has been the victim of aggressive behavior. In each class there were on average 3-4 abusers and 3 victims. According to half of the pupils (52.7%), the measures in the school against aggression (mainly lectures, seminars or sanctions) are ineffective. The majority of respondents (87.8%) proposed the introduction of a special subject in health education starting from the first grade and having a different thematic focus, enabling the building of emotional and social competence and including contemporary interactive forms of training.