Private vs. Public Schools: Same Bullies, Different Reactions

Youth bullying is a debilitating worldwide phenomenon that knows no boundaries, no race, creed or color, and is now growing online.

According to a 2018 report by the United Nations Special Representative on Violence Against Children, nearly 130 million school children around the world have reported being bullied at least once a month.

The highest rate of bullying among school children according to a similar study by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 42.7 percent of children reported some form of bullying. In the Middle East, that figure is 41.1 percent – considerably higher than Europe (25 percent) and North America (31.7 percent).

The figures are alarming but countries in the region are quickly mobilizing to curb and deal with the damaging effects of youth bullying.

In 2015, Egypt’s National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) in cooperation with UNICEF carried out a study on school violence in three governorates which found that bullying reached 47 percent.

Earlier this year, Egypt’s Ministry of Education and Technical Education in cooperation with UNICEF launched the first national anti-bullying campaign in a bid to educate students, parents and teachers about its negative effects.

Under the auspices of the NCCM, the campaign seeks to end peer-to-peer bullying and school violence.

The Egyptian government acknowledges that bullying creates anxiety and impacts a child’s mental and physical development.

While bullying occurs in both private and public schools in Egypt, the culture of disciplining students and the response to violence differs.

Some public schools maintain a culture which considers physical punishment as an essential part of disciplining students, says Aida El Tanani, a public school teacher.

But she says she can’t bring herself to hit children.

“I’ve always been judged by my peers for not hitting my students. They believe that it’s the only effective technique to teaching and disciplining,” said El Tanani, who asked that she not mention the name of her school.

El Tanani explained that insults and offensive slurs are casually used between students, and between teachers and students.

These insults no longer hurt the students or offend them as they have grown accustomed to hearing them.

“They don’t really hit them, the furthest they’d go is slap their students on the hands or arms with a thin ruler. They use thin rulers to ensure that it really hurts,” she explained.

El Tanani also revealed that parents sometimes request that their children be disciplined by the rod.

Nevertheless, it is peer-to-peer bullying that plagues the public school system in Egypt.

“Teachers wouldn’t even take a second look at two students insulting each other, or even physically fighting,” says public school senior Sherine Emad.

They would only interfere when they realize a student might get seriously injured.”

She explained that student well-being is not a priority to teachers in this public school.

“They [his school teachers] don’t do their actual job [teaching], do you expect them to do the job of a nonexistent counselor too?” she said.

“It would be very hypocritical of teachers to tell us to quit fighting or insulting one another because they do that to us on a regular basis.”

It’s an entirely different approach to education and discipline in private schools, however, where abuse of any kind is strictly prohibited.

Private school Arabic teacher Nagya Kamel says her school “doesn’t tolerate any abusive behavior and they take bullying cases very seriously.”

“A teacher will face expulsion if they ever think of raising a hand to a student. A simple slip-up could cause a teacher so much trouble, from the students, parents and administration,” she said

Kamel explained that it is normal for the school to take serious measures against any act of verbal abuse, because the school has a reputation to maintain.

“A student who bullies another will face suspension, the duration depends on the degree of the act. Expulsion is also possible,” she said.

According to education researcher Jessica Margolin, private schools have the advantage of being able to select the type of student they admit and therefore are able to vet for any “deviations” from their norms.

The case is very different for public schools where the “variability of community is much larger” and when resources are limited, some students can bully their peers with near impunity.

She also says that in public schools poorly-performing teachers may not be as supervised or held accountable because of limited resources and overburdened class size.

“I have been at the school for seven years and not once did a teacher abuse me, either physically or verbally,” says private school student Malek Abdo, 15.

“The worst insult [was] being called a loser. And the teacher who said that to me suffered the consequences. My parents issued an official complaint to the owner of the school and it became a really big deal and she got into a lot of trouble,” Abdo said

“Anytime I face a problem with any of my peers or teachers I automatically go to the counselor,” Abdo said.

He explained that the counselors at the school have solved many conflicts that could have escalated. The counselors spot cases of bullying often before they even occur because of teachers’ reports and student observations.

But bullying in private schools does exist.

A 13-year-old student from a private school told The Caravan that a suspended classmate put on his school uniform, came to school and started physically bullying him.

Out of fear, the boy called his older brother for protection.

“They thought that I want to fight with [the suspended student], so they started to beat my brother. 30 people were beating my brother. I didn’t know what to do and I was really scared,” he said.

Despite that the scenario was not the boy’s fault alone, he was the only one the school director suspended.

“He said bad things about me so that all the teachers started hating me,” the boy said about the director.

Raaed, a freshman who refused to name the well-ranked school he goes to for fear of expulsion, explained that bullying does happen in private schools, just often in a more hidden form.

“The bullies know that they would get in trouble if they get caught, so they have figured out the best places where they can abuse me and get away with it,” said Raaed.