The Flemish Government is looking into introducing compulsory anti-bullying policies in schools. This measure has been in place for some time in Belgian French-speaking schools.
Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) supports the call to introduce a compulsory anti-bullying policy in all Dutch-language schools in Flanders and Brussels. Demir confirmed she is looking into making it a legal requirement.
"Bullying destroys lives," she said. "It is one of the most horrible things you can experience at school. It can scar you for life, even until you are an adult."
Fragmented rules
The announcement comes following a call from the Flemish Scholierenkoepel, the association of secondary school students. It recognises that much is being done to fight bullying by individual schools, but that this results in significant differences between schools. Meanwhile, a recent survey by the association showed that one in ten pupils feel unsafe at school.
The association has therefore organised an initiative in which several hundred pupils will gather in the Flemish Parliament on Friday to ask the government to make an anti-bullying policy at school compulsory. It drew inspiration from French-speaking education, where an anti-bullying policy has been compulsory for some time.
Demir noted that she supports the pupils 100%. "Tackling bullying is a priority for me. The pupils have an ally in me. My door is always open to listen to their concerns and recommendations. Because we can only tackle this problem together," she said in a statement.
Related News
- Smartphones banned from German-speaking schools from next school year
- RTBF launches 'Operation Hope' to combat bullying in schools
Problems, such as bullying, will be included in the school contract, and the school inspection will monitor this. Demir also thinks schools should work on "an accessible reporting system", which should involve parents of bullies and bullied children. All this should be included in a broader policy plan around bullying and cross-border behaviour in schools, she said.
Finally, Demir noted that the smartphone ban, announced on 20 December, is also the first important step to reduce bullying at school. "Social media often serves as a megaphone to make bullying behaviour worse." Both the German-speaking and French-speaking government had already introduced such a ban in their schools.
