Abrar Hussain: Nearly 35 percent of students in Bangladesh, aged between 13 and 15, have reported being bullied at least one or more days in 30 days or involved in a physical fight at least once in 12 months in 2014, according to a new report by UNICEF.
The report also added that globally, half of students aged between 13 and 15 worldwide – around 150 million – have reported experiencing peer-to-peer violence such as physical fights or forms of bullying.
The report, published Wednesday, is based on data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children cross-national study and the Global School-based Student Health Surveys. The data includes 122 countries, representing 51 percent of the global population of children aged between 13 and 15 years of age.
The report also revealed that students experienced other forms of violence at school, such as attacks on classrooms or physical punishment by teachers.
About 720 million school-age children live in countries where they are not fully protected by law against forms of physical punishment at school, according to the report, reported BDnews24.
On the other hand, 17 million young adolescents in 39 industrialized countries have admitted bullying others at school.
While girls and boys are equally at risk of bullying, girls are more likely to become victims of psychological forms of bullying while boys are more at risk of physical violence and threats.
The report notes that violence involving weapons in schools, such as knives and guns, continues to claim lives, and also warned that in an increasingly digital world, bullies are spreading violent, hurtful and humiliating content with just the tap of a key.
Our time is a news portal