Harassement and bullying 'dangerously common, normalized' in Moroccan schools, says report

“Acts of verbal violence, such as harassment, name calling, and insults, are normal daily practices in Morocco’s schools and academic institutions,” according to an official report on violence in the school environment conducted by the Supreme Council for Education, Training, and Scientific Research.

The study, which was carried out in collaboration with UNICEF, will be presented during an international symposium that the Supreme Council will host.

Three or four of the study’s participants in primary school experience bullying. While 55.9% of high school students, particularly boys, acknowledged experiencing verbal violence and bullying to varied degrees.

Student abuse—which includes both verbal and physical assault—is pervasive in Moroccan schools, according to the report.

25.2% of the primary school kids who participated in the study’s survey said they had been beaten, while 28.5% said they had been shoved.

25.3% of secondary school students reported being beaten, and 37.4% of them said they had been pushed intentionally.

Boys in Moroccan schools are more likely than females to be the victims of physical assault, according to the report’s data.

Another common form of abuse and violence experienced by Moroccan students in schools is simple theft and being threatened with the theft of their personal items.

The prevalence of exposure to obsessive violence among elementary school students is 27.1%, whereas the prevalence among secondary school students is 38.6%.

Students in urban private institutions are less likely to steal under threat, compared to their peers in urban public schools.

The same study issued a warning that the rising use of digital communication tools would probably aggravate digital violence, which already has a harmful impact on some kids.

8.3% of kids in primary schools reported having experienced spam on social networks. In secondary school, 8.6% of students reported finding their private images and videos online or in text messages.

Additionally, 29.7% of secondary school students and 15.2% of primary school students, respectively, reported experiencing harassment at their schools.

Of those, 25.4% of secondary school students and 34% of elementary school students said the harassment was sexual in nature.

Students who attend private universities and those who live in urban areas are more likely to report harassment than their counterparts who attend public institutions and those who live in rural areas.