2023-10-18 21:00:00
According to a survey released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on October 4, the percentage of elementary and junior high school students who cited bullying as the reason for not attending school was 0.3% of all students not attending school. Experts and support groups have pointed out that this result is “far removed from reality.” They are calling for a review of the investigation methods, including not only investigating schools but also directly interviewing the children and students involved. (Tetsuya Enomoto)
◆Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology “Hearing from schools”…25% in a survey of children and students
What experts are pointing out is the 2022 “Survey on problem behavior and school refusal among students” released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Conducted every year, we ask national, public, and private elementary and junior high schools across the country regarding bullying, violent behavior, and truancy.
According to the survey, 299,048 children were not attending school, marking the 10th consecutive year of increase and setting a record high. Among the reasons for not attending school as determined by the school (you can select up to three), 954 students (0.3%) cited “bullying.”
School (image)
At the request of the Fukugaku Shimbun (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo) and others who had doubts regarding these results, Sho Suzuki (39), an associate professor of educational sociology at Tokyo Denki University, compared them with various other surveys conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. analyzed. Mr. Suzuki focused on the Ministry’s 2020 “Survey on the actual situation of children who do not attend school.” Although this is a sample survey of sixth grade elementary school students and second grade junior high school students, the students and their parents who have experienced not attending school responded directly. 25.2% of elementary school students and 25.5% of junior high school students answered that the reason for not going to school was “because of friends (harassment or bullying)”.
Mr. Suzuki said that the two surveys had different sample sizes, so “simple comparisons cannot be made,” and that “there may be a big gap between the perceptions of children and schools regarding bullying.”
Shiko Ishii (41), representative director of the school refusal newspaper, expressed concern, saying, “If we only investigate schools, there is a risk that serious bullying that leads to school refusal may be overlooked.”
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Student Guidance Office said, “The “COCOLO Plan,” a countermeasure once morest school refusal formulated in March of this year, includes a policy to review the contents of the survey so that we can analyze and understand the factors that led to each student not attending school. “We are considering reviewing the method for the 2023 survey.”
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◆The dependable older sister has completely changed…
When he was in elementary school, he was bullied, and his teachers and other adults around him did not listen to his complaints. Her emotional wounds never healed, and she stopped attending junior high school. Sayuri (22), whose last name has not been published, told the newspaper, “I want you to empathize with the feelings of children who are being bullied.I want you to acknowledge that they are suffering.” complained.
Sayuri is the eldest of four siblings. She was someone who was relied on by those around her, and she had a fun elementary school life. Until she was in 4th grade.
Sayuri talks regarding her experience of being bullied at elementary school and refusing to go to school in Shibuya, Tokyo.
When she entered the fifth grade, the boys who were sitting close to her began to bully her. If you approach him, he will call you a “germ” and kick you on the desk. He was forced to move away from his desk during school lunch, and was criticized for losing in the class’s big jump rope competition, saying it was “your fault.” The verbal and behavioral violence was repeated relentlessly every day.
◆Teacher: “What will you do if you lose?”
“I wonder what they’ll say to me today, and what they’ll do to me next time.I’m scared to enter the classroom.Because it wasn’t physical violence, it felt like my heart was being cut away little by little, quietly.” ”
On the surface, the boy is a “good kid” and is in the upper class of the school caste (ranking within the classroom). Perhaps because of that, both my classmates and my homeroom teacher turn a blind eye. He complained to the teacher at the school’s counseling room, but “What are you going to do if you lose?”
She felt abdominal pain and palpitations just by approaching the classroom, and was forced to go to the counseling room in June. Even in the 6th grade, she might not return to the classroom and just graduated.
◆When I suppressed my true personality in junior high school, I developed shingles due to stress.
In order to get away from the male bully, she enrolled in a junior high school outside her school district. “I have to play a character who can’t be bullied.” He originally had a strong sense of justice and was a person who spoke his opinions clearly, but at school he kept it a secret and kept a low profile.
At the end of summer vacation in his third year of junior high school, he suffered from severe abdominal pain and developed shingles. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with “severe stress.” Her emotional scars from her elementary school days and the way she kept holding back at school were eating away at her mind and body. If she continues like this, she will destroy herself. For six months until her graduation, she didn’t go to school even a day.
◆Don’t think it’s just bullying
After that, he attended a correspondence high school in Tokyo, where he was blessed with good teachers and friends. “My high school teacher treated me as an equal person, not in a hierarchical relationship.”
Currently working as a staff member for the school refusal newspaper. Every day, I face children who are finding it difficult to live like their former selves. Even now, from time to time, memories of being bullied come back to me and hit those around me.
“It’s changed my life so much. I don’t want you to think of it as just bullying.”
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