When it comes to bullying, the idea that it should have no place in schools is perhaps the most widely held belief in Hong Kong’s educational sector. Despite the Education Bureau adopting a zero-tolerance stance on school bullying since 2005, it remains a common occurrence in schoolyards. 

Indeed, a Save the Children report published in 2021 found that close to 25 percent of secondary school students are worried about being bullied. As MWYO, a Hong Kong youth-based independent think tank, found in its latest study conducted via in-depth focus group interviews with 26 secondary school students from different backgrounds, much training is required for secondary school students and teachers alike to equip them with the necessary skills to provide support for victims of school bullying.

In Hong Kong, much of the research regarding school bullying is focused on the perpetrators and victims, seeking to understand the motivations and impacts of bullying and explore ways to reduce bullying. While such an approach is undoubtedly important, it ignores the role played by witnesses (students and teachers) in those episodes. After overseas research suggested that witnesses could play a crucial role in reducing school bullying, MWYO has decided to investigate how students and teachers react when they witness bullying, with the aim of encouraging them to take on a more proactive role in protecting victims.

As students are often the only witnesses to school bullying, they are arguably best placed to defend their peers and support them in the aftermath. Indeed, the majority of students we interviewed feel that they have a moral duty to assist classmates who are being bullied and that not being able to help commonly results in feelings of guilt and unease. Despite this clear willingness to protect the victims, students often stop short of doing so. This is mainly because they feel that they are unqualified when it comes to stopping bullying. Citing a lack of training in conflict de-escalation and mental first-aid, students fear that their attempts at intervention will do more harm than good. As such, they choose to take no action.

That students decide to seek teachers’ help when witnessing bullying is natural. After all, this is the response that many schools encourage. What is worrying, however, is the fact that in-depth interviews with secondary school students appear to suggest that teachers are ill-equipped to deal with bullying.

In one case, for instance, a student recounted that a teacher, instead of stopping the bullies, accused a victim of bringing it upon himself. While such extreme cases are rare, there remains a common perception among students that teachers lack the skill to handle bullying. Students feel that this lack of preparedness leads to teachers trivializing bullying, seeking to characterize incidents as amicable rough-and-tumble rather than handling them with the seriousness such episodes demand. As a result, many students feel that reporting bullying to teachers is of little use and are disinclined to do so.

What can be done to encourage witnesses to intervene in bullying?

From these findings, it is clear that more must be done in order to equip students and teachers with the requisite skills to deal with bullying. Acquainting students with conflict de-escalation and mental first-aid techniques, for instance, would bolster their confidence to intervene when witnessing bullying and enable them to help victims in a timely and safe manner. With many secondary schools already dedicating school assemblies and homeroom periods to educating students about the harm of bullying, that time is arguably better utilized if social workers or child psychologists are invited to teach practical skills that will enable students to better navigate incidents of bullying.

Equally important is the need to train teachers on how to act when students come and seek help after witnessing bullying. Currently, the Education Bureau offers no teacher training course that is explicitly dedicated to the management of bullying. While certain aspects of bullying (e.g., maintaining school discipline) are covered in other training courses, a comprehensive course that covers topics such as the mental needs of victims and bystanders of bullying and the appropriate procedure for following up allegations of bullying is arguably required. This will ensure that teachers are able to deal with bullying in a timely and professional manner that demonstrates a clear commitment to stamping out bullying in schools. As such, we suggest that the Education Bureau should, in collaboration with the relevant non-government organizations and experts, design such a training course and require teachers who are most likely to be in charge of dealing with bullying (e.g., homeroom teachers, school discipline team) to participate in the course.

Given that teenagers spend a significant proportion of their formative years in school and their experience there will likely have a long-lasting impact on the rest of their lives, it is important that we provide as welcoming and supportive an environment to them as possible. This will involve giving students and teachers alike the skills and training required to tackle bullying in school and online so that young people can go to school without fear of being bullied and feel safe in the knowledge that everyone around them is able to lend a helping hand when required.

The author is a researcher at think tank MWYO. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.