The number of physical assault at school waned, and insult in the form of verbal abuse increased, Ministry of Education said Monday.
According to data by hotline call center 117 Monday, daily cases of school violence reported were 301 compared to last year’s 219. The call center is widely known as a resort of anonymity by the attacked or by one of the silent majority.
Some 95 percent of the students are aware of the hotline system and they don’t shy away from reporting incidents, the ministry explained.
The bullies got clever and avoided visible attacks which lead to direct punishment. Rather they resorted to verbal ones leaving scarce physical evidence. Physical assault went down from 38.3 percent to 29.1 percent, verbal attack from 16.7 percent to 23 percent.
The report rate from the bullied students rose by three percent from 65 percent to 68 percent. The rate of the parents’, however, dropped by four percent from 25 percent to 20 percent.