Measures to Deter Bullying in Schools

8 Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong asked the Minister for Education (Schools) (a) how prevalent and serious is bullying in our schools; (b) what preventive measures are undertaken to minimise and detect bullying; (c) whether our teachers are trained to handle bullying incidents; and (d) whether students involved in bullying and who are victims of bullying are given counselling care.

The Minister for Education (Schools) (Mr Ng Chee Meng): Mr Speaker, based on a student perception survey conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2015, about 10% and 20% of our 15-year-old students reported that they had experienced some form of social and verbal bullying respectively. Physical bullying was less prevalent at about 5%. This is quite similar to the Ministry of Education's (MOE's) findings and other local studies.

MOE does not tolerate bullying in any form and every child has a right to feel safe and secure in our schools. When students misbehave or make mistakes, schools will discipline and educate them so that there is learning and it will not be repeated. School staff will also counsel students who are involved in bullying as well as those affected by it.

Our school personnel have been trained to give attention to and address hurtful behaviours. Teachers are provided with training in classroom management strategies and positive classroom culture. There are resources which provide information, strategies and good practices to instill good discipline.

Through Character and Citizenship Education, students learn social skills, empathy, respect and awareness of the effects of mean actions on others. They also learn coping strategies, relationship management and help-seeking skills. Schools also actively create a positive and supportive environment for all our students. They have strengthened peer support by equipping students with relevant skills, such as befriending and active listening. The peer supporters will alert and seek help from their teachers when they observe situations that affect the safety of their classmates.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Daniel Goh.

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Minister. There seems to be growing instances of people posting video recordings of bullying online which affect the students, the schools' reputation and the teachers' reputation, too. So, how does the Ministry respond to this? How will it do so in future?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mr Speaker, the use of handphone in the classroom is actually prohibited. So, while the act is prohibited, the upstream measures that I have described actually are more important − teaching students how to cope with bullying behaviours, taking positive action to deal with those negative behaviours. And then, overall, in the classroom, how do you teach positive social behaviours like empathy for others, learning to care for others, beforehand? So, proactive measures are what we are doing in schools, and this would be the emphasis.

Generally, our students are well-behaved. Incidents in our schools in terms of bullying are very few and have been relatively stable.

Mr Speaker: Ms Chia Yong Yong.

Ms Chia Yong Yong (Nominated Member): I would like to ask the Minister for his clarification on the Ministry's definition of "bullying". At which point in time does the child's mischievous prank become bullying, and the kind of support that are given to students who have been thus identified, and, of course, how they are identified?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mr Speaker, bullying is defined as persistent behaviour intended to cause hurt, distress or humiliation. It can be physical, verbal or psychological in nature. Cyberbullying is defined as any behaviour performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that communicate hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort over time against a victim.

Because a post can be seen by many people and be easily reposted by others online causing hurt to victims, we understand that this is a growing area of concern and the schools are dealing with this.

In terms of support, the schools have put in place bullying prevention and intervention measures, such as providing accessible channels for safe reporting of bullying cases, investigating and following up promptly on reported cases, and, as I was saying in reply to Assoc Prof Daniel Goh earlier, adopting an educational approach to help all students, including bystanders, to learn from the incidents and prevent further bullying. These are the different support measures.

Mr Speaker: Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Speaker, my question to the Minister is: for those students who have committed acts of bullying, are there also initiatives to involve their parents in the counselling process of the bullies themselves, not just the victims? And further upstream, are there initiatives to involve parents in character-building and values-in-action education of students in schools?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mr Speaker, students' parents, depending on the cases, if severe enough, would be called in by the schools, so that they will do the post-incident counselling together with the students. In severe cases, parents and child will be with the school to look at how the incident can be dealt with and how follow-up actions can be taken together − by the school, the student and the parents.

Beyond that, we are also in touch with stakeholders in the community. Organisations, like the Children's Society, are also in touch with our schools to extend further help and general education to students and parents.

Mr Speaker: Mr Leon Perera.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Just two supplementary questions regarding bullying. Is there right now a national hotline that children who are bullied can call up? Because, understandably, some children may have reservations about approaching their teachers, friends and parents. Is there a national hotline, and is there awareness of that hotline among all the schools? I believe the Minister mentioned the Singapore Children's Society. I believe there is one such hotline. So, I just want to clarify if there is awareness of that hotline across all schools. That is the first one.

Secondly, if that is the case, then does MOE analyse the data from this hotline − aggregated and anonymised data − to see if there are certain patterns? For example, are there more bullying complaints reported from a certain school and, if so, then should an intervention be done with the teachers of that school, that sort of thing?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mr Speaker, there are different avenues for our students to do the reporting. And especially for bullying, where oftentimes it is local, the best way to deal with it is through the peer network, teacher network, counselling network and so on.

Where there is a hotline, that would be a useful medium as well. At the moment, I do not have the data on the patterns of the hotline reporting, and if the Member would like to file a Parliamentary Question (PQ) on that, then we can give the Member more details on the patterns, if there are any.

But on the whole, bullying, as I have mentioned in the PQ reply, has been stable and managed. Physical bullying is less than 5%.