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Published on October 16, 2007

More than 70 per cent of teachers resorted to violent punishment for bullies, such as spanking and withholding food, said Dr Sombat Tapanya, a leading psychologist from Chiang Mai University.

He said 40 per cent of students said they were bullied two to three times a month or even more frequently. The study was conducted on 1,300 teachers and 3,047 students from Prathom 4 to Mathayom 2.

The bullying occurred at Prathom 4 level and occurred less frequently as the students progressed through school. The study found the bullying was mostly in the form of verbal attacks and insults about race or complexion.

Dr Sombat told the Ban Ratch-withi Forum on child aggression that the schools in Eastern Thailand had the most instances of verbal attacks, plus extortion of money and other items. The places in school where bullying took place most frequently were: classrooms when teachers were not there, corridors or on top of stairs, school playgrounds, canteens, and classrooms in front of the teachers.

Sombat said foreign research on the subject found long-term humiliation could have a short or long-term effect on students.

In the short term, students could be fearful, anxious and unable to concentrate in class, leading to lower grades. Long-term effects were low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and depression. Students who are violent toward others in school could go on to be more violent and aggressive in society, and are more likely to be criminals, Sombat said.

Eighty-nine per cent of teachers polled said they noticed students' bullying of other students. Of those, 25 per cent said they had witnessed more than 10 bullying incidents. About 41 per cent of teachers admitted they had little reaction or did nothing when seeing a student being bullied, while 75.2 per cent of parents did not contact schools to try and stop student bullying, he said.

Over a third of students said they tried to stop bullying, while 20.6 per cent said they were not interested in intervening. More than 70 per cent of teachers said violent punishment such as spanking, withdrawing food and incarceration were necessary to control bullies.

The survey was conducted in schools in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Lop Buri, Chon Buri, Chanthaburi, Khon Kaen, Songkhla and Chiang Mai between February and March last year.

Sombat hailed the success of a pilot project to reduce bullying in 11 schools across the country. The measures included announcing a school policy prohibiting students from bullying one another, informing children about the impact of bullying, and applying stricter rules requiring witnesses of bullying to report the incident to teachers.

The Nation