EXAMINING THE PREVALENCE OF BULLYING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE ROLE OF SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK IN ADDRESSING THE ISSUE

Abstract

Bullying in schools can have detrimental effects on students' physical and psychological well-being, often resulting in long-lasting emotional scars. Addressing this issue is crucial in ensuring that school education remains a positive and nurturing environment for all students. Objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of bullying in public schools, and to assess the prospects of school social work to solve the problem of bullying. The methodology of the study was based on convergent parallel design of mixed method approach. 47 male and 53 female students of grades 6 and 10 of public schools of Tehsil City, district Lahore were selected for quantitative research by using proportional stratified random sampling technique. Quantitative data was collected from the students and qualitative responses were gathered from the parents and teachers. Criteria for inclusion was poor grades and poor attendance of the students. Among a sample of 100 students, 36% indicated prevalence of bullying as a lot, while 43% reported that such behavior occurs sometimes. Of the surveyed students, 37% expressed fear of being bullying as a lot, while 35% disclosed that they experienced such fear sometimes. Binary logistic regression analysis indicates that students who face bullying in school has 1.31 times more chances to dropout from school as compared to those who do not face bullying. This study proposes that education policy needs to acknowledge challenges faced by children and introduce school social work to help address these challenges.