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To have safe learning environments and protect the welfare of students in Nigeria, the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, on Wednesday intensified its campaign against bullying in schools.
It declared that disciplinary actions including suspension, expulsion, and "name and shame" await offenders.
The one day workshop titled 'Sensitization Workshop for Students and Teachers on the National Policy on Anti-Bullying and the Effects of Bullying' has students and teachers participants from various schools in the Federal Capital Territory as representatives of students across the country.
Speaking at workshop the Deputy Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hon. Razak Olajuwon, said the initiative is part of the Tinubu administration’s commitment to make the education sector inclusive and safe for all learners.
“Today is a very mighty part of the laudable effort under the leadership of the Honorable Minister for Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa to ensure that our educational ecosystem is inclusive and every stakeholder of it is taken care of,” Olajuwon said.
He noted that bullying has affected learners and learning outcomes nationwide.
“We know definitely that the subject of bullying is a discussion that has affected most people. Everybody standing here would have been subjected to one form of bullying or the other in your life,” he stated.
Noting that the administration has introduced an anti-bullying policy alongside engagement sessions with students, Olajuwon said students present at the workshop were drawn from the FCT, representing over 45 million pupils across the country.
For the policy to be effective, the UBEC Deputy Executive Secretary urged students to speak up when they witness abuse.
“To ensure that we talk about it, we say: 'if you see something, say something'. This idea of keeping quiet when you see your fellow students being bullied at the end of the day affects them psychologically, mentally, and at the end of the day it affects the learning outcomes.
Reflecting on the measures taken so far, he said, there is reduction in cases of bullying, adding that the sensitization efforts were already yielding results.
“We’ve seen reduction drastically in numbers of this because there has been an engagement by the Ministry at every forum to talk about it. Students have been engaged, sensitized on the need to stop bullying and ensure that they report it.”
He explained that school authorities including head teachers and principals have been empowered to act swiftly when cases are reported.
On penalties, he warned “If you are caught, penalties — a whole lot of disciplinary actions will be taken. No student wants to be suspended in school. No student wants to be expelled from school. And there is this attitude of name and shame. If students are named and shamed, it affects you psychologically. It affects you, it affects the parents and the guidance.”
“Let’s have a change of narrative in terms of bullying. We are against bullying. We can’t grow our educational system with bullying,” Olajuwon said.
He called on the media and other stakeholders to amplify the campaign, stressing that “our values and our morals must stand.”
Also speaking at the workshop, Ayotola Ilori, the Executive Director of Sustainable Solutions for Youths and the Vulnerable Initiative, SSYVI, called for a united front involving government, media, development partners, and the private sector to curb bullying and safeguard students in Nigerian schools.
Stressing that bullying remains “rampant in our schools”, she said it can no longer be ignored.
“Because you are keeping quiet, that's part of the problem,” Ilori said, urging participants to move beyond silence.
Ilori noted that tackling the menace requires collaboration across all sectors of the society.
“At Sustainable Solutions for Youths and Vulnerable Initiative, it's our pleasure, it's our mandate to keep our schools safe. Safeguarding and bullying is rampant in our schools. We all need to come together — media, development partners, government, CSOs, private sector. All of us, all hands should be on deck,” she said.
She explained that there is great impact of bullying on students’ mental health and learning outcomes.
The effects, she said, included fear, anxiety, trauma, poor academic performance, unsafe learning environment.
She listed the types of bullying as verbal bullying, physical bullying, social bullying and cyber bullying.
Her group, she said, remains committed to promoting safe learning environments and supporting efforts to address violence in schools.
Bullying, she insisted, is a deliberate attempt to bring someone down.
On his part, the representative of the Africa Principals Conference Initiative, Ayodele Joseph, commended the Federal Ministry of Education for bringing the issue of anti-bullying to the front burner.
"This workshop is highly timely and we are here to support it and how to domesticate it in all schools."