RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Stu­dents of Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege have launched an an­ti-bul­ly­ing cam­paign aimed at ed­u­cat­ing their peers on its dan­gers and of­fer­ing sup­port for those strug­gling with sui­ci­dal thoughts.

Un­der the guid­ance of teacher Ja­son Sam­my, stu­dents set up in­ter­ac­tive booths tack­ling phys­i­cal, ver­bal, prej­u­di­cial, and cy­ber­bul­ly­ing. Low­er Six stu­dents Maya Gob­in and Kar­ish­ma Har­ry al­so cre­at­ed a web­site to pro­vide sup­port for stu­dents in dis­tress. They hope to ex­pand their reach across the coun­try.

Gob­in said while the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has a Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion, most trou­bled chil­dren do not go to the school guid­ance coun­sel­lor be­cause it car­ries a stig­ma.

“They don’t go to their par­ents be­cause they’re judged, and if they do de­cide to con­fide in a teacher and are re­ferred for help, they will lose trust,” she said on Wednes­day, adding that trou­bled stu­dents don’t know which hot­line to call, so it might be a good idea to get stu­dents to be­come am­bas­sadors in schools.

“Let them go around talk­ing to youths across the coun­try about is­sues. Use so­cial me­dia plat­forms like Tik­Tok, In­sta­gram, and Snapchat to post short videos on how they can get help. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion should start send­ing teams of youths to all schools be­cause a trou­bled stu­dent would much rather talk to a peer than a par­ent, teacher, or coun­sel­lor,” she said.

Har­ry, who built the web­site (https://kar­ishmahrr1.wixsite.com/sb­hc), said bul­ly­ing is ram­pant in many schools and it is time for new meth­ods to reach the younger gen­er­a­tion.

Sam­my said the min­istry has pro­mot­ed the cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion pro­gramme.

“The stu­dents of Low­er Six Busi­ness are en­gag­ing with the younger stu­dents, ed­u­cat­ing them about all types of bul­ly­ing, ask­ing ques­tions, giv­ing them prizes for an­swer­ing, and us­ing dra­ma and tech­nol­o­gy to pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on sui­ci­dal ideation and the hot­lines that are avail­able,” Sam­my said.

“There are a num­ber of stu­dents in our coun­try who have tak­en their lives, while oth­ers suf­fer in si­lence. The idea here is to sen­si­tise peo­ple. Some­times we bul­ly peo­ple with­out even know­ing it, based on our tone and ges­tures,” he added.

“If we want to tar­get bul­ly­ing in schools, it must be a na­tion­wide ac­tiv­i­ty.”

Act­ing prin­ci­pal De­venish Neer­an­jan said bul­ly­ing ex­ists in the wider com­mu­ni­ty, not on­ly in schools.

“Most times, stu­dents learn bul­ly­ing from adults when they see it in their homes and neigh­bour­hoods. In our school, we have a bit of bul­ly­ing but we man­age it by speak­ing to our stu­dents every day through the form teach­ers’ pe­ri­od.”

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion has been ex­pand­ed since 2022 and has been work­ing well to en­cour­age dis­ci­pline.

“Based on the da­ta in our 26 schools of fo­cus, in­frac­tions have de­creased, and the school cli­mate has be­come more pos­i­tive,” she said.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said the school’s clin­i­cal and be­hav­iour­al psy­chol­o­gists have been en­gag­ing in teacher ed­u­ca­tion ses­sions re­gard­ing top­ics such as de­pres­sion, self-harm, sui­ci­dal­i­ty, stress and anx­i­ety, self-care, and cop­ing.

Teacher in­for­ma­tion ses­sions are con­duct­ed by so­cial work­ers on sim­i­lar top­ics, in­clud­ing recog­nis­ing signs of self-harm in stu­dents and 18 Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices spaces have been cre­at­ed at schools of fo­cus to im­prove the men­tal health of stu­dents, the min­is­ter added.