Speaker Among orders minister to combat bullying in schools

Speaker of parliament Anita Among has directed the ministry of Education and Sports to combat incidents of bullying by students in schools in the country.

Among’s directive follows the death of 14-year-old Bonus Atukwatse, a senior one student of Kyamate secondary school in Ntungamo Municipality last month.

Atukwatse’s alleged tormentor, a senior three student was serving a suspension by the school authorities for bullying. The suspect reportedly later sneaked into the school premises and tied his victim on his dormitory bed before soaking him with petrol and setting him ablaze.

Several other students were injured in the inferno that gutted and destroyed valuable property worth millions of shillings across Mandela and Nyerere boys’ dormitories at the school.

“When there is that kind of bullying, children will even drop out of school. They will fear to go to school because the bullying is too much. I want to ask the minister of education that this barbaric act must stop. You must communicate to all your teachers. It must be a school to all the schools that we do not condone this act,” said Among.

The speaker called for more investigations to ascertain the cause of bullying in modern-day schools. She equally rallied parents to exercise proper parenting to foster love, discipline and respect among the children.

“We need to understand what is the cause of this bullying, is it an aspect of parenting and the parents should know and should teach their children that in every society you must show love to each other. The lawlessness should be gotten out of these children. When the children go to school, they must have respect for each other, they must have love for each,” she added.

In response, John Chrysostom Muyingo, the state minister for Higher Education conveyed the ministry’s condolence to the bereaved family and restated that a new circular will be communicated to schools to address bullying.

Bullying is a repeated form of aggressive behaviour in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort such as the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, dominate or intimidate the weak by older or stronger individuals.

A 2020 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) revealed that bullying in schools deprives millions of children and young people of their fundamental right to education.

The findings projected that more than 30 per cent of the world’s students have been victims of bullying, affecting 1 in 3 young people each month with devastating consequences on academic achievement, school dropout, and physical and mental health.