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One in every three. That’s how many young people between the ages of 13 and 15 report being bullied at school, according to a 2019 global study by UNESCO. This points to an unacceptable reality for too many learners: school bullying and violence remain widespread, occurring in schools and countries across the globe—and the Asia-Pacific region is hardly an exception.

School violence may be physical, psychological, or sexual in nature, and it can occur between student peers—as is the case of bullying and cyberbullying—or between students and school personnel, such as in harsh forms of discipline and corporal punishment. In South-East Asia, even though ASEAN’s Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Children requires all its member states to prohibit corporal punishment of children in all settings, only 5 of the 11 member states comprising the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) prohibit corporal punishment in schools.

Yet every act of violence constitutes a violation of children’s rights, and a considerable body of evidence points to the negative impacts of school violence on young people’s school attendance, their learning achievement, and their physical and psychosocial well-being. Findings of the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, of 2019, underscored this issue in tallying data from six South-East Asian countries to reveal that higher reading, writing and mathematics scores were associated with student’s positive feelings and attitudes towards school, namely their having a sense of belonging, making friends with ease, feeling safe, and learning useful things at school. Exposure to violence at school drives the results in the opposite direction, with lower reading, writing and mathematics scores associated with this root cause of poor psychosocial well-being. 

Any learner may be at risk of school violence, but the truth is, some students are more likely to experience such violence than others. Learners living with disabilities; learners from marginalized communities; adolescent girls; and those who do not conform to expected gender roles are all especially vulnerable. And in an increasingly digitalized world, the emergence of online violence and cyberbullying have added to traditional school-based violence a new dimension, with painful repercussions spreading more swiftly, their viral and harmful effects blurring the lines between what happens within and outside of schools themselves. Girls are more likely to face social exclusion, as well as sexual and psychological violence, while boys are more likely to experience physical bullying and corporal punishment.

While bullying may be one of the most recognized forms of violence in schools—it often plays out in adolescent television dramas and social media communities or news feeds—it is by no means the only type of harm to a young learner’s well-being in classrooms and on playgrounds. Nor should we allow ourselves to become complacent and accept that such unwanted acts are a ‘normal’ part of growing up, boys being told to ‘man-up’ and girls being chided that they ‘can’t take a joke.’

Violence at school can have severe and long-lasting impacts on the mental health of everyone in the school community: learners, teachers and other school staff, whether they are either the direct target of violence or witness it. In its 2019 report, Behind the Numbers, UNESCO underscored the fact that children who experience bullying are nearly twice as likely to have feelings of loneliness, to suffer sleep-related problems, and to contemplate suicide as those who have been spared such abuses. Four years later, in the wake of COVID-19-related school closures, the mental health of children and teens, already a pre-pandemic concern, has emerged as a priority for schools in East Asia and the Pacific, where UNICEF estimates that 1 in 7 adolescents now lives with a diagnosed mental disorder.

Despite the seeming enormity of the problem, the good news is that we know what works to prevent and respond to school violence, and how to promote and protect the mental health of all learners. 

First, it is essential that everyone acknowledge the issue. We must call out violence for what it is, understand when, where, and how it occurs, and insist that school is no place for anyone to fear being bullied, attacked, harassed, physically or emotionally punished, humiliated, or socially stigmatized. 

National governments have an important role to play, as they must establish health-promoting school policies and examine evidence against holistic frameworks, and use measurement tools to understand school violence and its gendered dimensions, so that responses are better targeted and responsive to learners’ needs. It is crucial not to label targets of school violence as being psychologically ‘fragile’; equally, it is important not to stigmatize bullies as deliberately malicious individuals. Indeed, some students will require assistance to overcome psychosocial problems that may trigger their violent behaviours. Yet all persons affected by violence—survivors, witnesses and perpetrators—can benefit from psychosocial support. 

Second, schools and other learning settings can play a key role in fostering young people’s mental health. Teachers can serve as a first line of response by doing their best to identify learners in mental distress. But education systems and schools cannot work alone; rather, they must be in constant dialogue with health, social welfare, and child protection practitioners, along with families and the larger community. Parents must be empowered in encouraging children to share their need for psychosocial support. Young people must also be encouraged to assume peer-leadership roles in driving positive change within their schools and communities, as they know best what a safe school means to them. 

Third, we must create a holistic ‘culture of care’ in schools, where every member of the learning community feels welcome and valued; where help-seeking is promoted and poor mental health is de-stigmatized; and where everyone works together to prevent school violence from occuring in the first place. This is a ‘whole-school’ approach that invests in strong school leadership, in partnerships between school, home, and community, and in curricula, teaching, and learning practices that tackle the root causes of inter-personal violence and poor mental health. 

By working together, and across our usual silos, we will be able to bring together a necessary diversity of government, civil society, academic, youth and other entities to create safe and harmonious learning settings for all. Only then will schools become ‘no place for fear.’

This is a lightly adapted version of .

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