In a study involving 2,528 primary school students of both sexes from 29 national schools in Perak, two researchers have discovered that most bullying cases take place in the classroom itself just before a teacher enters.

The study by Professor Dr Noran Fauziah Yaakub and Professor Madya Dr NS.Rajendran from UPSI's Human Development and Cognitive Science Faculty showed that 40.9 percent of bullying cases occurred in the classrooms before teachers entered to start a class.

A high incidence of bullying - 23.9 percent - was also reported after school when the pupils were about to leave for their homes. Science and computer labs were the two places on school premises which saw the least cases of bullying.

Noran's and Rajendran's findings, which they made available to malaysiakini, also showed that more boys were prone to be bullies and a majority of them were older than their victims.

The researchers defined bullying as a subset of aggressive behaviour, unprovoked in nature and occurring repeatedly. The bully is stronger than the victim or perceived to be stronger and it is the intention of the bully to cause either physical or psychological hurt to his or her victim.

They said the objective of their study was to discover the extent of bully-victim problems among schoolchildren and propose strategies for behaviour modification.

They urged the ministry of education to tackle the bullying issue on a long-term basis and put in place adequate measures failing which schoolchildren could suffer from far- reaching negative consequences.

Improve abilities

They suggested that amongst others, the ministry should ensure a conducive environment for classrooms as well as have regular updates for teachers on education programmes. Teachers too, should always strive to be aware of incidences of bullying and take pro-active measures to overcome the problem, they added.

Of the total number of schoolchildren involved in the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) study, a majority came from Tamil schools, followed by national-type schools and finally Chinese schools. The children were from Years four, five and six and slightly more than half were boys.

The researchers also pointed out the need for further study to be done to ascertain whether there was a link between bullying, the types on television programmes watched by schoolchildren and the number of hours spent watching these programmes.

They said more research needed to be focussed on how reformers and teachers could work together in formulating and implementing new policies to deal with bullying given the socio-political situations in the country.

There is a need to provide ongoing professional development opportunities to further improve the abilities of school principals and the teachers in handling the issue of bullying in schools, they added.