School a danger zone to half the world’s children

MANILA, Philippines — Violence in the school is an “unforgettable lesson” faced by more than half of the world’s children that shows the school environment is not a safe place, but a “danger zone” where they have to learn in fear, according to a new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report.

The report said half of students aged 13 to 15 worldwide – around 150 million – have experienced peer-to-peer violence in and around schools.

An everyday lesson: #ENDviolence in schools has detailed the many forms of violence that are a pervasive part of young people’s education around the world. Violence impacts student learning and well-being in rich and poor countries alike.

The report measures the number of students who report having been bullied over the period of a month, or involved in a physical fight during the previous year, and shows that for many young people, the school environment is not a safe place, but a danger zone where they have to learn in fear.

Globally, slightly more than one in three students aged 13 to 15 experience bullying, and roughly the same proportion are involved in physical fights.

Three in 10 students in 39 industrialized countries admit to bullying peers.

In 2017, there were 396 documented or verified attacks on schools in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 26 in South Sudan, 67 in Syria and 20 in Yemen.  

Nearly 720 million school-aged children live in countries where corporal punishment in the school is not fully prohibited.

 While girls and boys are equally at risk of bullying, girls are more likely to become victims of psychological forms of bullying and boys are more at risk of physical violence and threats.

Victims of cyberbullying are more likely to use alcohol and drugs and skip school than other students.