Minister Ozer; He made evaluations about the workshop on " Holistic School Approach towards Preventing Peer Bullying " held in Ankara in order to increase awareness about peer bullying, strengthen school-family cooperation and support the studies on this matter. He stated that there are singular events in the education system, which consists of 1 million 150 thousand students and 1 million 200 thousand teachers.

 

Explaining that they are trying to build mechanisms that will strengthen and support the school in order to build a safe school climate, Özer said that, in addition, multidimensional studies on preventive methods are carried out by the General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services of the Ministry of National Education, and in this context, He stated that awareness and psychoeducation programs were prepared on "peer bullying", "cyber bullying" in the 2022-2023 school year on subjects such as "psychological resilience".

 

Stating that classroom guidance programs are carried out and psychological counseling and guidance services are provided in schools for risk situations, Özer stated that various programs are prepared for preschool and primary school students to raise awareness about peer bullying and to develop coping skills.

 

Expressing that they have established village life centers for 1 million 147 thousand 555 people, 841 thousand 267 of whom are women, with the Family School project they started to take into account the out of school environments, Özer emphasized that they are working to strengthen the tolerance and communication environment in the society. Underlining that they show zero tolerance for the bullying that teachers and students inflict on each other in schools, Özer stated that they will not make any concession for making educational institutions safe.

 

Özer reminded that they organized a workshop on "Holistic School Approach towards Preventing Peer Bullying" with 150 participants consisting of academicians, school administrators, guidance teachers and psychological counselors in order to raise awareness about peer bullying and support the studies. In the workshop where issues such as the role of families and the school on prevention of peer bullying were discussed, Özer said that they discussed these issues from multiple perspectives and stated that the "results and suggestions" report was prepared.

 

Minister Özer stated that a proposal was made at the workshop to carry out studies on peer bullying with a holistic approach, to act together in creating a healthy school climate, and to increase cooperation with relevant institutions and organizations.

 

Stating that they will constantly support students, teachers and families in order to raise awareness against peer bullying, and increase activities to strengthen the family, which is one of the most important elements of the process, Özer stated that they will develop programs at Family Schools to raise awareness on peer bullying.

 

Minister Özer stated that the final report of the workshop included a proposal to "determine the risk situations of peer bullying in schools and plan prevention and intervention studies". Noting that they are planning to assign guidance teachers in each school, Özer informed that there are currently around 40 thousand guidance teachers and psychological counselors working at schools, and they have started working on starting a program in order to increase the professional competence of these teachers on social emotional skills. He also stated that they have expanded the contents specific to preschool, primary, secondary and high school levels prepared as part of the 'Psycho-education in Challenging Life Events Project'.

 

Stating that academicians reported a need for guidance lesson hours at all levels in order to effectively implement developmental, preventive, remedial guidance and psychological counseling services at school levels, Özer said that they put this issue on their agenda and discussed what could be done. Reiterating that peer bullying in high schools is a disciplinary offense, Özer pointed out that discussions on an arrangement that can be brought about in the legislation to prevent bullying and violence in schools are also ongoing.

 

Noting that they will implement new plans according to the workshop's final report, and announce it to the public when all these issues are clear, Özer concluded that their aim is to bring our education system to a much healthier point.