Debated in Parliament on 21 Jan 2014.
Mr Laurence Lien asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry supports adopting and enforcing a zero tolerance policy towards bullying in schools.
Madam, MOE and schools are committed to high standards of discipline. We do not tolerate bullying in any form, and schools have in place a system and measures to support a safe, conducive environment for learning.
When incidents of bullying occur, these should be brought to the attention of the school authorities. Schools will take immediate action to investigate and assess all reported cases. Appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken against students who commit the act of bullying. Schools also support the affected students and help those involved learn from the incident.
Our schools educate students on bullying through both the formal curriculum as well as school-based programmes. Through the curriculum, schools emphasise the importance of values such as respect, responsibility and resilience. Students are also taught skills to handle challenging situations. The new Character and Citizenship Education curriculum specifically teaches students to report cases and seek help and to care for others. Anti-bullying awareness programmes, organised in many schools, empower students to help themselves and support their peers who are bullied.
To support teachers and school counsellors in managing bullying in schools, MOE has provided all schools with a "School Bullying Management Kit". The kit enhances school personnel's knowledge on how to manage bullying and support students who have been bullied.
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Schools also engage the families and the community on bullying prevention. For example, the Singapore Children's Society conducts bullying awareness programme for students and training workshop for teachers and school counsellors. In addition, MOE collaborates with agencies and other Ministries through the Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC) in supporting cyber wellness efforts to address the cyber bullying and other cyber-related issues.
Mdm Speaker, I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether the Ministry would consider more specific anti-bullying school policies to draw more attention to bullying in schools. Bullying should not just be one out of many disciplinary issues in schools. It should be especially called out.
I also would like to ask whether there is a regular gathering of statistics on bullying in schools. If so, what are the trends? If not, is it a sign that the Ministry itself is under-estimating the extent of bullying which seems to be actually quite serious, from the reports and publications of some of the Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) and from studies done previously?
Madam, I appreciate the concern of the Member on the importance of managing bullying in schools. I would like to assure the Member that schools and the Ministry are working very closely to help our students to manage bullying through reporting bullying cases, through helping those who have been bullied, and schools also help those who bully others.
As I said earlier, MOE and schools' approach are multi-pronged. We try to prevent bullying; we intervene in cases of bullying; we infuse bullying awareness though our curriculum; we support schools by providing them with resources, and we conduct courses and seminars for teachers in collaboration with other agencies. I think what we have been doing has been helpful.
I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the numbers. Do we have the numbers on bullying? Has it gotten better or worse?
We have got Health Promotion Board (HPB) to conduct a student health survey. In 2006, for example, we found certain incidents of bullying as indicated by students; whether they have seen bullying incidents in the last few months before the survey. We do not conduct surveys regularly but, periodically, working with other agencies, like HPB, we do collate information
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on incidents or perceptions towards bullying.
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