School bullying

An online platform established to address violence and bullying in Greek schools has already received 41 complaints since its launch less than one week ago, Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said on Monday.

School bullying and, more broadly, adolescent violence are social problems that cannot be solved by administrative decisions alone. 

However, the state's mobilization is necessary to begin to systematically record and methodically deal with the problem. The measures announced by the government are a good start.

“We are concerned not only about the number of incidents, but also about the intensity of the violence,” said Mitsotakis. Pierakakis added that bullying in schools is a national issue

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe today released the second volume of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, which focuses on patterns of bullying and peer violence among adolescents across 44 countries and regions.

Students who post videos on social media exposing or mocking their classmates during school hours will be expelled, according to the Education Ministry. 

It is the most severe penalty provided for in the penal code of the Education Ministry, which now aims to comply with the ban on mobile phones at Greek schools.

The 6th of March has been established by the Ministry of Education as the National Day against School Violence and Bullying

Amid the recent spike in juvenile violence and school bullying, the government is seeking to combat the phenomenon with an immediate plan of action that involves among others the tightening of penalties, such as the reintroduction of the five-day suspension and easier expulsion from school.

Amid well-publicized instances of severe bullying at schools, the government wants not only to toughen sanctions against offending students but also to commit resources to diagnosing neurodevelopmental disorders at the earliest possible age, before even preschool.

Following the decision of the Education Ministry, teachers will teach students how to deal with peer bullying and cyberbullying within the scope of "School-Based Social Responsibility Studies," taught as an elective course in secondary schools.

The new curriculum will teach students what peer bullying is, what to do if they encounter bullying and how to behave to avoid being bullied.

Migrant children, girls, children from poor families and those growing up in single-parent households are more likely to be the victims of bullying, a study by the Smile of the Child charity published on Tuesday has found.