Why bullying is rife in South African schools

Dr  Sheetal Bhoola

THE recent surge of incidents related to bullying and resulting in violence has been escalating in South Africa. On average, there are over three million learners at primary and secondary schools that are bullied annually.

The escalating rate indicates a huge concern within South African schools, and the challenge lies in trying to identify the reasons as to why bullying has become so prevalent. Academics and theorists indicate that often the victims of bullying become the perpetrators, and the behaviour is closely related to feelings of belonging and safety within the school environment.

The research conducted by academics at the Human Sciences Research Council revealed that bullying is a complex and difficult problem to resolve. Learners can be simultaneously the perpetrators in some incidents, and the victims in other scenarios at schools.

The types of bullying range from verbal, physical, emotional, and relational. Schools play a pivotal role in the socialisation of any child, but we need to carefully analyse the role of the educators, the learners as well as the support staff.

It was reported in 2024 that more than 65% of victims of bullying at schools do not approach their educators, and the reasons are vague and somewhat very specific to each school. There is a perception that many young educators do not have the skills or experience to identify all the types of bullying utilised by learners in the classroom.

Identifying the behaviour type is the most important step, as it serves as an indicator of behaviour that is acceptable or unacceptable in the classrooms. Bullying can continue outside the classroom deliberately by perpetrators so that educators cannot witness or identify the incident.

In many incidents, educators lack the skills to deal with bullying, the perpetrators and the victims and often are quick to dismiss the incident in an attempt to focus on academic curriculum. The incidents that happen during class time do cause disruptions and the quality of teaching and learning is negatively impacted.

Teachers have reported that they often are forced to fast-track teaching closer to the examination period because of the lost teaching time caused by learners experiencing fights because of bullying.

The other challenge is that newly graduated teachers do not have the skills or teaching experience to appropriately govern and intervene when such incidents occur. Learners have also noted that those who are less favoured by teachers or treated unfairly in the classroom have a likely chance of being a victim of bullying.

In addition, educators and school management have no control over the incidents that take place during lunch breaks, on the sports fields and outside the school premises. The learner can often lose focus after being victimised and the experience can be detrimental to the child’s capacity to learn and feel safe at school.

There are approximately 160 000 learners that opt to bunk school to avoid being bullied at school daily. This then culminates in learners dropping out of school completely.

According to the Zero Dropout Cam- paign's latest results, approximately 40% of learners who enrol for Grade 1 drop out before completing Grade 12. However, bullying is only one of many reasons as to why children leave their educational trajectory.

The ideal is that bullying should not feature as a contributing factor to school dropouts. One in 10 learners drop out primarily because of bullying. An immediate measure for South African schools to eliminate bullying is much needed.

During the last decade, there have been cases of learners committing suicide as they did not have the correct support from schools, and their families to deal with becoming victims of continual bullying. Learners can also be verbally violent very often, and without a corrective measure in place, this way of communicating is normalised in the absence of educators and school management.

The government needs to realise that bullying in schools is another social problem that has resulted from difficult socio-economic circumstances which include poverty, low levels of education, racial capitalism and inequality which is prevalent in South Africa. Educators need to ensure that teaching and learning is conducted simultaneously whilst building a sense of community or family amidst learners in the classroom.

Children need to be practising kindness and empathy most times, and they need to be taught how to communicate effectively without being abusive in their intent, choice of words and descriptions. Cultivating an environment of brotherhood and sisterhood is one avenue to mitigate bullying; however, if this is not impactful, educators will have no impact on the bullying incidents that take place outside of the classroom.

Bullying should be reported, and schools should emphasise the punishment for engaging and supporting negative and deviant behaviour. Central to curbing these incidents is that educators need to be skilled appropriately through professional development initiatives as to how to identify bullying and how to resolve it in a way that can have a long-term positive impact.

Should this issue not be resolved, we will have scenarios where the educators are at great risk to be bullied by learner perpetrators. Educators should involve learners in the remedial approach to deviant behaviour within the classroom and employ positive communication at all times. The task of mediating is a daunting one, and schools need to further consider if they should skill teachers to mediate.

Conflicts can persist and continue for days and weeks within the classroom, especially if teachers are not adequately skilled to offer resolutions and dissolve situations with a best possible outcome. Teachers have articulated that the bigger the class, the harder it is to teach and cultivate a culture of empathy and kindness.

Therefore, the ratio of teachers to children also plays a pivotal role in curbing bullying. In addition, unhealthy, dysfunctional and devoid families of learners, difficult socio-economic circumstances of the families and low levels of education are all key motivating factors for young adults to engage in acts of bullying.

*Dr Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and the director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale).

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