Independent schools can beef up their anti-bullying programmes by joining forces to create a pool of professionals who would go wherever needed, Malta Union of Teachers president Kevin Bonello is suggesting.

The pool system is currently used in State schools, where the government anti-bullying department offers a pool of services to all State schools to deal with cases of bullying.

But the Independent Schools’ Association believes this is not necessary as prevention and timely intervention in cases of bullying rank high on the priority list of independent schools.

“For this reason, all ISA schools are individually very well equipped in terms of human resources, as well as policies to meet any problems of this nature. This renders a pool of professionals to address this problem unnecessary,” association president Joe Gauci said.

Government schools also have a department responsible for ensuring standards are maintained. However, Mr Bonello pointed out, this department was plagued with the age-old problem: lack of resources.

“The department’s role also includes auditing schools. There are about 120 State schools but it only manages to audit about 15 a year. It needs more resources,” Mr Bonello said.

He was speaking to Times of Malta after the mother of a seven-year-old recently called on education authorities to intensify their efforts to address bullying.

She said her seven-year-old son was repeatedly beaten by students at a private school since January. She brought the problem to the attention of the school but no concrete action was ever taken.

She then went to the education authorities and the department responsible for independent schools contacted the school’s head and set a meeting to discuss the situation. But the meeting was set for three weeks later, a timeline the mother deemed unacceptable. Her son no longer attends the school.

An Education Ministry spokesman said the government’s anti-bullying service followed up all cases reported to it and worked with the senior management team of schools concerned.

He added that the Education Regulatory Compliance Section, within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, was backed by law to be given access to information requested from any school.

There are about 120 State schools but it only manages to audit about 15 a year

When contacted, the school expressed its disappointment for not having been given an earlier opportunity to reject the mother’s allegations.

The school was never named on request of the mother, who told this newspaper she was sharing her story to encourage the authorities to protect children against bullying.

It said it had spoken to the mother about the boy’s “behaviour and attitude”.

“Without going further into the merits of this particular case, which is still in dispute, the school reiterates it has always taken all necessary precautions to avoid incidents of bullying, and still does.

“Furthermore, the school has always immediately attended to any allegation of bullying raised in relation to its students, investigating thoroughly the matter to ascertain facts, and taking immediate remedial action where appropriate,” it said.

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