At a press conference Tuesday Education Minister Tomas Druker introduced a new directive, which came into effect as of February 1, aiming to prevent and address bullying.
"In particular, it's about defining very clearly what bullying is. We're no longer talking about direct and indirect bullying and cyber bullying, but also about physical, verbal, mental and emotional bullying," declared Drucker, and added that for the first time ever the directive unequivocally identifies all participants in the process, including witnesses and pupils who might be unwittingly abetting the bullying.
Another novelty is that responsibility over the bullying and its prevention is borne by the school principal. If the school will not address cases of bullying, discovered by the state inspection, the director will be automatically dismissed and banned from applying for similar positions.
The directive provides detailed guidelines on how to prevent the bullying, with the Education Ministry having launched a pilot project of anonymous bullying reporting.
Source: TASR
