These are the measures against bullying proposed by the Government of Spain
The bullying it is a scourge that must be eliminated. With this objective, the Council of Ministers has just approved the report on the Strategic Plan of School Coexistence, which includes a total of 70 measures against the so-called bullying. This plan, in which the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport has been working for months, includes a telephone number and other measures for students, parents, teachers and centers. We summarize them.
Plan against bullying in schools
The plan against bullying is articulated in eight axes that go from observation to prevention, going through the investigation of this phenomenon. This has been explained both by the vice president of the acting Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and the head of Education, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, who stressed that the measures are intended to serve as "a reference to students, families and teachers through the coordinated work ".
Méndez de Vigo explained the objectives of this plan, which at the moment is only a draft: the government wants the harassment "to stop being a silent scream, that the sufferer does not suffer internally but has help, parents and Teachers are capable of providing this help and that together we can help alleviate this, which I know is a problem and a huge concern for many families, "he said.
In this line, the minister has indicated that the plan has its origin in the conviction that coexistence "is one of those axes in which there can be consensus for the necessary National Pact of Education in Spain". For this reason, he has indicated that this is how the plan was designed, which was born with the aim of promoting cooperation between institutions and administrations and "involving and involving students and families".
A guide for parents against bullying
The draft contains a list of 70 measures against bullying, of which the Minister of Education has highlighted ten. In turn, of these ten has emphasized one: the elaboration of a "guide for parents" that the Ministry of Education will elaborate in collaboration with the autonomous communities. This guide will aim to enable families "to be able to identify if there are signs of violence or harassment among their children" and, if so, to know how to act before them.
Along the same lines, it is planned to prepare a support manual for victims of school violence at the state level. This will include information on "the implementation of detection and intervention protocols" and will serve to know "how to provide support" to victims and how to work with the stalkers, a point this last one on which the minister has emphasized, noting that it is "very important" to deal with this aspect because "the stalkers often need help, since they do not know the damage they are causing".
Training for teachers against bullying
Other measures taken into account in this manual include the "specific training for teachers and management teams of educational centers" and the development of courses and seminars on "successful educational activities", as well as "criteria-based practices" scientists. "
For those who want to become teachers there will also be measures. Méndez de Vigo pointed out that it is planned "to incorporate and reinforce the contents and competencies required for school coexistence in the selective processes of access to the teaching career, both in the syllabus and in the internship period". All this, with a maxim: "The key piece in the education system is the teaching staff," the minister said.
As in Spain education is a competence of each autonomous community, the plan foresees to work in coordination with them to create "a protocol of action to be able to prevent cases of school harassment in the classrooms and act immediately if they occur. "
This protocol will also include procedures so that potential victims "can report in a safe and confidential manner, and can receive specialized attention when they need it," Méndez de Vigo detailed.
Help phone against bullying or bullying
Another of the measures taken into account is one already announced: the start-up of a free hotline that will operate 365 days a year and will be attended by experts in the field, such as psychologists, lawyers or social workers, that they are going to demand a special degree.
"What we want is for there to be a Free phone that leaves no trace and attended by qualified experts where those who feel in a situation of harassment can call and ask for help, "said the minister, who said that it will be specific for cases of gender violence.As announced, in February the service will be published in the BOE and the process will end on March 4, so it is not yet known when it will start operating.
Also on coordination with other autonomous communities, the draft provides for the implementation of a Territorial Cooperation Program that will contemplate all the axes defined by the strategic plan. The objective is to be able to work together in the collection of data, the results and information about its impact and impact on the improvement of school coexistence.
This information will be compiled in a "State registration of coexistence" that it will be created for this purpose and that it aspires to become "the basis for collecting the statistical data on school coexistence throughout the national territory", in such a way that it will offer "faithful, rigorous and permanently updated information, in such a way as to allow in real time".
Awareness about bullying or bullying
An important point in this plan has to do with raising awareness about this danger. In this sense, it has been announced that in the "next weeks" an institutional campaign will be launched in this regard that will have announcements in all media. A Correos stamp will also be issued and will go on sale on February 2. In this same line the members of the Government have remembered that already there is a web on the bullying school.
The "State Network of Schools of 'Tolerance Zero'" It is another of the measures included in the plan. The objective of this is "to recognize at the state level the educational centers that demonstrate having improved their coexistence" through plans and projects that promote inclusion, prevent tolerance and support the victims.
These practices will be discussed at a congress that will be held annually and where school bullying will be reflected and advanced. The idea is that this meeting will help as an "instrument of participation of the educational community and the autonomous communities."
The draft includes other measures that are already underway or in process, such as the "Master Plan for Coexistence and Improvement of Safety in Education Centers and their Environments", drawn up between Education and the Ministry of the Interior. This will be "reinforced" in terms of school bullying, according to Sáenz de Santamaría.
Likewise, the creation of the Registration of Sex Offenders promoted by the Ministry of Justice to comply with the Child Protection Law, according to which no person with a history of these crimes can perform activities that involve contact with minors.
Angela R. Bonachera
