Education Ministry Unveils New Directive on Bullying Prevention
4. februára 2025 20:52
Bratislava, February 4 (TASR) - The Education Ministry introduced a new directive aiming to prevent and address bullying, in effect as of February 1, Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
"In particular, it's about defining very clearly what bullying is. We're no longer talking about direct and indirect bullying and cyber bullying, but also about physical, verbal, mental and emotional bullying," declared Drucker, and added that for the first time ever the directive unequivocally identifies all participants in the process, including witnesses and pupils who might be unwittingly abetting the bullying.
Another novelty is that responsibility over the bullying and its prevention is borne by the school director. If the school won't address cases of bullying, discovered by the state inspection, the director will be automatically dismissed and banned from running for the post.
The directive provides detailed guidelines on how to prevent the bullying, with the Education Ministry having launched a pilot project of anonymous bullying reporting.
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