As Singapore students choose a secondary school in the wake of the PSLE results, a prominent Catholic boys’ school is claiming a unique reason for students to choose them: a “Zero-Bullying” environment.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post<\/a><\/span> on Nov 27, Maris Stella High School listed “Ten Reasons Why” potential students should choose to attend the almost 70-year-old school, which is already regarded as a prestigious institution.<\/p>\n Besides being a Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school and having “caring and nurturing teachers”, it was the fourth reason that stood out: “We are a Zero-Bullying school: With our award-winning school-wide bullying prevention programme, Stop!t@MarisStella, you are safe in Maris Stella!”<\/p>\n Redditor @sagi271190 shared the school’s post later in the day, saying: “When a school is using ‘zero bullying’ to advertise itself, I think it reflects a pretty sad state of affairs all around. Would you agree?”<\/p>\n The post drew immediate skepticism from netizens.<\/p>\n Some praised Maris Stella for tackling the issue of bullying. “I think the fact that the school has the guts to put this up actually acts like a guarantee to parents. This is way better than schools that can’t say this,” said a Redditor.<\/p>\n “Good on the school to highlight the issue. Some schools don’t even care and victim blame. It’s a solid point to be made,” said another.<\/p>\n Others felt it would be difficult to deliver on the promise of zero-bullying.<\/p>\n “It’s unrealistic to expect zero bullying [sic] in any school because teachers cannot control every action made by groups of immature children and teenagers. Hence why [sic] many hold the sentiment that this zero bullying [sic] promise will likely age poorly,” said a netizen.<\/p>\n Another felt that the school might even go to the extent of covering up such cases, while some thought that there should not be any bullying to begin with.<\/p>\n “I think the issue is that zero-bullying schools should be the norm, not the exception. That Marie [sic] Stella is able to advertise this as a selling point is an indictment on [sic] the school system as a whole for failing to stamp out bullying,” said a commenter.<\/p>\n The issue of bullying in schools has gained prominence in recent months, following the Sengkang Green Primary School incident<\/a><\/span> in August, where three students bullied a female classmate and sent death threats to her mother.<\/p>\n A Ministry of Education (MOE) review of its approach to handling bullying<\/a><\/span>, which began earlier in 2025, will include parents, educators, professionals and the community in the next phase.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/stomp\/4911840fee01e655a122959ef4dd22fd53f59f41ae6d19b8d64575f0f979e768\/Bully1.jpg?w=360&f=webp)
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