Dangerous Future? Let’s Act Against School Violence!

One possible way to boost the Hungarian economy is to increase higher value-added economic activities. This can happen if the quality of education improves in primary, secondary, and higher education alike.

Measuring the quality of public education does not provide clear data on whether the quality of education is improving. The current measurement systems serve to measure the performance of teachers and do not provide a complete picture.

The number of teachers involved in education is decreasing, mainly due to a lack of specialized teachers in physics, chemistry, and computer science. We wrote about this here.

The impact of bullying among schoolchildren is rarely considered among the factors that significantly influence the quality of education.

Unfortunately, there are no official, national-level statistics on the exact number of detected cases of school bullying in Hungary. There are several reasons for this:

Lack of a uniform definition: The definition of bullying is not entirely clear, and the severity of individual cases can vary greatly.

Many cases go unreported: Many cases of bullying remain hidden because victims are afraid to report or do not know who to turn to.

No centralized data collection: Although schools are required to document bullying cases, this data is not aggregated at the national level.

The March 2022 issue of the professional journal “Új Köznevelés” published by the Education Office dealt with the topic in detail. According to the article, one in six children suffered abuse within the school.

Bullying can have serious psychological effects on children, which can negatively affect both their educational and social performance.

Lack of concentration: Victims of bullying are often anxious, afraid, and have difficulty concentrating on their studies. This can lead to a decline in academic performance.

School avoidance: Victims of bullying often start avoiding school to avoid their bullies. This can lead to absences and falling behind.

Decreased motivation: Victims of bullying may lose their motivation to learn because they feel that it doesn’t matter how hard they try if they can’t meet expectations anyway.

Lack of self-confidence: Victims of bullying often become insecure and doubt their abilities. This can make it difficult for them to actively participate in class or stand up for themselves.

Isolation: Victims of bullying are often isolated and have difficulty making friends. This can lead to loneliness and depression.

Lack of social skills: Victims of bullying often don’t know how to handle conflict or communicate effectively with others. This can make it difficult for them to fit into the community.

Aggression: Some victims of bullying may become aggressive to protect themselves or to retaliate against their bullies. This can lead to further problems at school and in their social relationships.

Mental health: Victims of bullying are more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders, depression, and even suicidal thoughts.

The effective treatment of the above syndromes requires the involvement of school psychologists; the exact number of professionals working in schools is unknown.

According to the 2022 parliamentary response of the Minister responsible for education, there were 1922 school psychologists working in the country.

In contrast, the School Psychology Methodology Base is only aware of about half of this, around 1000 people.

According to professional estimates, at least 3000 school psychologists would be needed to ensure that every student receives adequate care.

Based on this, it can be said that although the number of school psychologists has increased in recent years, there is still a significant shortage of them, and existing professionals are often overloaded.

In 2018, the government launched the school guard service. According to the latest publicly available data, as of September 2023, more than 1100 school guards were serving in various institutions across the country, but there is currently no public data on whether their operation and physical presence reduced the number of school violence incidents.

The issue of school violence is complex; its solution is only possible through social cooperation, requiring the full cooperation of political leaders, teachers, psychologists, and children.

However, it is important to note that the public and home influences children experience affect their behavior at school.

These forms of behavior and reactions are closely related to today’s socio-economic conditions.

So here we come to the beginning of our article: One possible way to boost the Hungarian economy is to increase higher value-added economic activities. This can happen if the quality of education improves in primary, secondary, and higher education alike.