Almost half of the students have gone through unpleasant experiences at school in the last year, being the target of gossip or ridicule by their peers. Every fourth student was excluded from activities, hit or pushed, or had their personal belongings destroyed. These findings are contained in the School Barometer, presented for the first time by the Ministry of Education and Research, reports IPN.

According to the study, the most common forms of violence in schools remain verbal and psychological: 46% of students reported that other classmates spread rumors about them, and 43% were ridiculed. The data shows that, on average, 3-4% of students face almost all forms of violence analyzed on a weekly basis, highlighting the existence of a group of students constantly exposed to aggression.

The MEC study shows that the main causes of aggression among students are minor conflicts, problems in interpersonal relationships, lack of parental supervision and the desire for assertion or dominance. Also, social and material inequalities, negative competition, and socio-emotional or behavioral difficulties of some students contribute to the emergence of violence.

The respondents explain the aggression of teachers through several factors, such as inappropriate behavior or lack of discipline among students, lack of respect towards teaching staff, low academic results, unpreparedness for lessons or absences from classes. To these are added psychological factors, such as stress, negative emotions, personal imbalances, as well as professional exhaustion or limited patience towards the needs of students.

The report emphasizes that preventing violence in schools should not rely solely on rules and sanctions, but also on emotional support, counseling and the active involvement of parents, teachers and the entire school community.

The research, conducted on a nationally representative sample, included over 4,200 students, 1,570 parents, 2,463 teachers and 95 principals, selected from 110 schools in 71 localities.