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SINGAPORE: Parents, teachers and experts broadly welcomed the measures announced on Wednesday (Apr 15) to tackle school bullying, but many were not convinced the recommendations would move the needle.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Education (MOE) announced nine recommendations following a comprehensive review of bullying that began in 2025, along with clearer disciplinary guidelines for misconduct cases \u2013 including bullying \u2013 similar to those introduced for <\/span>vaping offences<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All the parents CNA spoke to affirmed MOE’s decision to come down harder on hurtful behaviour in schools.<\/p>\n Ms Lyna Hanis, who has two sons aged seven and four, said the move to make reporting such behaviour easier stood out to her.<\/p>\n Noting that several bullying cases have made the news in recent years, the 37-year-old added that she had always worried that children would not know what to do if they were bullied.<\/p>\n Before her son entered Primary 1 this year, she spoke to him about what bullying might look like \u2013 getting shouted at, being asked for money \u2013 and how he should not react in kind.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I thought the whole reporting thing made sense. I don\u2019t know whether kids would just keep quiet or react the same way, so they need to know that there are avenues for them to tell the teacher what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n A parent who only wanted to be known as Ms CH, whose two daughters aged seven and 11 attend the same school, said both have encountered bullying.\u00a0<\/p>\n She was among parents who wrote to MOE last year with feedback on how her daughter’s bully was handled by the school. The bully had threatened that their wealthy parents would come after her family.<\/p>\n She asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation from the other student\u2019s family or her daughters\u2019 school.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just really happy that within six months, something came out \u2026 I\u2019m just happy to see that something is being done, and we need to get it done as soon as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ms Syed Hairun, who has three daughters aged 13, 11 and 8, said the new measures show that bullying is being taken seriously.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say the combination of stricter consequences along with support systems is pretty important to combat bullying,\u201d she said, adding her daughters have experienced some bullying.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her oldest daughter did not tell her at the time, fearing she would speak to the teacher, and only told her about it after entering secondary school. When Ms Hairun checked with teachers about her younger daughters’ experiences, she was sometimes told she did not have the full picture.<\/p>\n \u201cI choose to trust the teacher, partly because I don\u2019t know what happened in school. And I believe the teacher\u2019s judgment about how she handled the case, they\u2019re trained to do so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She checks in more often with her daughters on whether the other student’s behaviour has changed, given what is at stake for their safety and mental health.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think the punishments alone will solve the issue, because bullying often comes from deeper emotional or social influences,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd in many cases, I believe that the parents play a very important role. Many children pick up behaviours from social circles, from relatives or their playground settings, social media or even attitudes at home.\u201d<\/p>\n One teacher said that while many schools had already been doing what the MOE measures touch on, making it a system-wide change would have the greatest impact.<\/p>\n Teachers interviewed for this story did not want to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, parents cannot argue: \u2018Are you sure this follows protocol?\u2019\u201d said Oliver, who teaches English and mathematics at a primary school, adding the same applied to other types of misconduct.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great that there are now guidelines for us that the ministry has made very clear to everyone \u2026 that this is our stand on serious misconduct and these are the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n With a common framework, parents can no longer argue that certain consequences are unfair, he added.<\/p>\n Assistant Professor Cheung Hoi Shan from the National Institute of Education said unclear guidelines had long been a pain point for teachers unsure where to draw the line.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the definitions are not clear, then nobody knows how to act \u2026 The risk is that I may be overreacting. Is it too much to label a child as somebody who has caused harm when I don\u2019t even know where to draw the line?\u201d<\/p>\n The new framework explicitly highlights repetition and intention as hallmarks of bullying, giving everyone a shared understanding of the agreed process for handling such cases, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith that transparency, I think that is really the whole basis of building trust.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSTANDARDISED GUIDELINES<\/h2>\n