The Education Ministry has taken several initiatives to tackle the bullying issues students faced in schools, says Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin.
“With regards to bullying in schools, firstly we have established a taskforce chaired by former education director general Dr Habibah (Abdul Rahim), to see what we need to look into what we can do within the regulations we have to curb bullying in schools.”
“So that is what the taskforce is looking into now,” he was quoted as saying by Malay Mail.
He also said the Education Ministry (KPM) will work together with the Ministry of Home Affairs to launch a programme called “Sekolahku Sejahtera Sepakat Selamat” to create a safe environment in schools.
He said the concept currently practised also emphasises elements of students’ character so they could make rational decisions and the inculcation of empathy to avoid being involved in bullying.
“We would be working closely with the police to ensure that the conditions in schools are safe and our children feel that schools are a safe place. With this, we hope that cases of bullying in schools would reduce drastically,” he said.
Apart from that, he said the ministry will be launching an anonymous portal for victims to report bullying cases in school next week.
According to Dr Radzi, parents and teachers too, can lodge reports of bullying in schools through the portal. They can do it through phone, email or the portal itself and these methods could deal with emergencies and the informer’s confidentiality.
He said this when responding to a question from the reports about the recent bullying incident that took place in the Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) in Kuantan.
Meanwhile, Radzi said his ministry is committed to reduce bullying incidents in schools through several holistic measures, including establishing special committees to study existing guidelines and procedures relating to bullying in school for improvement purposes.
“So if you are involved or in the know of any bullying cases and want to report it anonymously, there is now a platform for you to do so. Hopefully, with this, students won’t be too scared of repercussions from reporting bullying cases,” he said.
