EDITORIAL - Bullied? Call 911

As classes began yesterday in public schools, the new chief of the Philippine National Police promised speedy response to complaints about bullying of students.

Authorities must intensify measures to address bullying and violence in schools. Last April, two students of a public high school in Las Piñas were stabbed dead by three of their schoolmates, reportedly following an argument over a light switch. Before this, a Grade 8 student in Parañaque was stabbed dead when she refused to lend her makeup kit to a classmate who was reportedly a bullying victim.

Bullying was seen as a factor in the poor performance of Filipino 15-year-old students in the first two times that the country participated in the Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2018 and 2022.

PISA 2019 results showed that 65 percent of Filipino students reported suffering from various forms of bullying at least a few times a month, with 40 percent being bullied at least once a week. The PISA 2022 reported that one out of three Filipino students suffered bullying in schools.

The PISA results have earned the country the dubious distinction of being the bullying capital of the world. This is despite the enactment of Republic Act 10627, the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 – a year when 1,158 bullying cases were recorded nationwide. In 2018, the number had surged to 20,172. Between November 2022 and April this year, the Department of Education received 658 complaints of bullying in schools.

As far back as 2012, DepEd had ordered the creation of child protection committees in public schools, to monitor, prevent and respond to complaints of bullying. The CPC is chaired by the school head, with a guidance counselor or teacher as vice chair and with representatives of teachers, parents, students and the community.

DepEd officials, however, have disclosed that as of last April, only 966 out of 45,000 public schools nationwide had fully functioning CPCs.

Simply finding enough professional guidance counselors is a challenge. This June 20, the country will be marking the anniversary of the signing of Republic Act 11036, the Mental Health Act of 2018.

Yet in the seven years since its enactment, the country’s pool of mental health professionals has barely increased. This need must be addressed even as the PNP deals with the law enforcement aspects of bullying. Confronting this problem requires so much more than police work.