Dear Editor,
A mother throws pepper at a bully to stop the bullying of her child. This is a truly unfortunate situation and I do hope that the law takes into consideration her emotional state which would have driven her to this desperate action.
Bullying has to be addressed at a national level as it is sometimes difficult for schools to act without clear guidelines. I presented on this issue at two school forums this year, organized by the Dharmic Sabha and many students spoke of the awful experience of being bullied. There was consensus that a policy needs to be developed and that a National Anti Bullying Programme be in place at schools of all levels.
This policy would be for having zero tolerance for bullying in all schools in Guyana. Integral to the policy would be mandatory reporting of bullying by students who observe bullying, protection for students who report and also enormous support for those who are victims. Strong actions are taken against bullies which includes punishment and mandatory treatment for anger management.
A walk this month organized by the Give Another Chance foundation, saw participation from many sectors including the Texila Medical School where Emotional Intelligence (EI) awareness was promoted. Bullies tend to have low EI. Emotional Intelligence is valuable for training persons for leadership positions, for positive motivation of our youths and also as a mechanism for addressing school bullying.
In the USA a programme developed by Yale is in more than 500 schools for using EI to prevent school bullying. The results are very good. In the UK several schools have added the modules to their curriculum for helping students gain insight into negative behaviours and for obtaining greater control.
I hope to see our present and future Government taking the issue of school bullying as a National Concern and developing policies which would include curriculum change for preventing this disorder.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Davendra Sharma
Professor of Behaviour
Sciences
