Schools are supposed to be one of the safest places for children next to the home. It is the place where children learn academic and social skills through their interaction with their peers and teachers. However, some students across the world live in persistent fear and depression, because of their experiences with various forms of violence including bullying (Twemlow & Fonagy, Sacco & Brethour 2006; McEvoy2005).
Bullying is defined as a deliberate, repeated or long-term exposure to negative acts performed by a person or group of persons regarded as having a higher status or strength than the victim (Olweus, 1993). It can be verbal such as insults or threats, physical such as hitting the individual with an object or social such as excluding …show more content…
Despite these international policies violence in the form of bullying exists in schools. For Example, McEvoy’s (2005) study of 236 high school and college students in the USA revealed that 47% of the students reported that they could identify one or more teachers who are recognized as bullies. Whitted and Dupper (2008) also found that 83-88% of 25 students surveyed reported at least an incident in which an adult in school physically or psychologically mistreated them.
In Ghana, research has shown that various forms of violence are a part of formal disciplinary measures as well as everyday life for students (Dunne, Leach, Chilisa, Maundeni, Tabulawa, Kutor, Forde, Asamoah, 2005 as cited in Dunne et al, 2010). In spite of the Ghana Education Service (GES) unified code of discipline for Seniour High School (SHS) and Technical Institutions which state the conditions in which corporal punishment should be carried out (Ghana Education Service, GES n.d. as cited in Dunne et al, 2010), physical violence in the form of corporal punishment continues to be tolerated in schools and has been found to be
Bullying is defined as a deliberate, repeated or long-term exposure to negative acts performed by a person or group of persons regarded as having a higher status or strength than the victim (Olweus, 1993). It can be verbal such as insults or threats, physical such as hitting the individual with an object or social such as excluding …show more content…
Despite these international policies violence in the form of bullying exists in schools. For Example, McEvoy’s (2005) study of 236 high school and college students in the USA revealed that 47% of the students reported that they could identify one or more teachers who are recognized as bullies. Whitted and Dupper (2008) also found that 83-88% of 25 students surveyed reported at least an incident in which an adult in school physically or psychologically mistreated them.
In Ghana, research has shown that various forms of violence are a part of formal disciplinary measures as well as everyday life for students (Dunne, Leach, Chilisa, Maundeni, Tabulawa, Kutor, Forde, Asamoah, 2005 as cited in Dunne et al, 2010). In spite of the Ghana Education Service (GES) unified code of discipline for Seniour High School (SHS) and Technical Institutions which state the conditions in which corporal punishment should be carried out (Ghana Education Service, GES n.d. as cited in Dunne et al, 2010), physical violence in the form of corporal punishment continues to be tolerated in schools and has been found to be