Almost one in three students is exposed to violence or bullying in school. It is estimated that, globally, 246 million children and adolescents experience some form of violence in and around school every year. Discrimination against children and young people in school, as well as towards teachers, based on ethnicity, disability, HIV, social or economic status is also a significant problem in many contexts.
Violence and bullying in and around school, including abuse, violate human rights, undermines learning, academic achievements and have adverse physical and mental health consequences. Therefore, UNESCO provides technical guidance and support to boost education sector capacity to address violence and discrimination in school and calls all stakeholders to get united against school bullying.
Teacher capacity building
UNESCO supports in- and pre-service teacher training initiatives to improve their knowledge and skills to address violence and bullying in school.
Over 3,000 teachers and school psychologist in EECA countries have been trained on this issue via a distant learning course.
ICT-enhance solutions
The advancement of information technologies opens new opportunities for professional and creative development. It does though bring up some challenges and threats, cyberbullying among them. As toxic as off-line bullying, aggressive behavior in the Internet is highly harmful for physical and emotional health of adolescents. According to UNESCO data, about 12% of young people between 9 and 16 years old are victimized by cyberbullying attacks globally.