42.5 pct of students believe there’s violence in school, one quarter report it: survey
Skopje, 19 November 2022 (MIA) – As many as 42.5 percent of students believe there is violence in their school, and only a quarter report it. The most common reasons cited for violence between peers in schools include demonstration of force, jealousy and behavioral issues, shows a survey of the First Children's Embassy in the World Megjashi, conducted in primary and secondary schools in Skopje.
The survey was conducted in September - October 2022, on the occasion of November 19 -World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse.
Students said they feel most unsafe where they live because of violence due to physical appearance and ethnicity, stray dogs and problematic boys in groups.
According to the survey, 25.7 percent of students cite verbal violence as the most common form of violence, followed by social violence (exclusion from a group / gossip) with 24.8 percent. Respondents believe there is no difference between genders in terms of who is most often a victim of violence – 54 percent of respondents believe that both boys and girls are equally victims of violence.
Only a quarter, i.e. 25.7 percent of the students said they had reported violence, and 15 percent said they didn’t want to respond, which, according to Megjasi, suggests that they may have witnessed violence, but don’t feel comfortable talking about it or reporting it.
Only 33.6 percent of the students believe the responsible services in their school respond appropriately and promptly to cases of violence. A large part of the students said they are not familiar with how the services respond (27.4 percent) or that services don’t respond appropriately and promptly (11.5 percent).
November 19 was designated World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse in 2000 by the non-governmental organization Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF), and it is an annual global campaign to raise awareness aimed at building a culture of prevention of child abuse.
The network led by Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF), which also includes the First Children's Embassy in the World Megjashi as its member, brings together over 930 governmental and non-governmental institutions/organizations from more than 135 countries that mark this day every year.
“Macedonia has an active National Strategy for the prevention and protection of children against violence (2020-2025), according to which the term violence is "all types of physical or mental violence, injuries or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or child exploitation, including sexual abuse, in terms of trust and care by parents, guardians or any other person legally entrusted with the child care,” said the First Children’s Embassy.
