Adults must be reliable
Lena Nyberg
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
By Lena Nyberg, Swedish ombudsman for children (taken from a speech given at the European Network for School-Aged Childcare (ENSAC) conference in London last month) In Sweden, the work of the children's ombudsman is guided by issues that children and young people themselves emphasise as major problems. The issues they want adults to prioritise include bullying, stress and the work environment in school. Especially important are school lunches, changing rooms for PE, noise levels and toilets.
(taken from a speech given at the European Network for School-Aged Childcare (ENSAC) conference in London last month) In Sweden, the work of the children's ombudsman is guided by issues that children and young people themselves emphasise as major problems. The issues they want adults to prioritise include bullying, stress and the work environment in school. Especially important are school lunches, changing rooms for PE, noise levels and toilets.
In one of the surveys we conducted last year, we asked what children thought were the most important things for the politicians to deal with.
Most answered that schools should primarily be given help to prevent bullying, followed by better food, making school premises a better place to be in, a desire for special teachers and, in fifth place, taking action to reduce stress.
Bullying is a daily torment for many children, and adults' inability to react in this area surprises me. We must offer our children a secure, pleasurable school day without a constant feeling of unease. When we spoke with pupils, we found that it is just as common for children to feel bullied by a grown-up at school as by another child. Adults must take responsibility for setting a good example, and always react to bullying.
What we call criminal offences when committed by adults, we often call 'pranks' or 'mischief' when performed by children. The office for children's ombudsman has, therefore, proposed that bullying should be made a criminal offence. Principals, teachers and other staff in schools and pre-schools must be obliged to prevent this type of crime.
According to the children we spoke to, bullying takes place mainly in the changing rooms, during breaks and on the way home from school. They feel there is no point in going to the teacher because they pretend the problems do not exist. The teacher does not react and, according to the pupils, does not contact the parents of the child doing the bullying. It is very worrying that children cannot rely on adults at school.
