Returning with a second report on the joint framework prepared by the Educational Psychology Service and the Counselling and Career Education Service of the Ministry of Education for the prevention and management of serious incidents of violence and delinquent behaviour in schools, colleague Evangelia Sizopoulou notes that the relevant policy document sent to schools provides guidance for the individualised support of all those involved — both victims, perpetrators, and witnesses.
With regard to perpetrators, the document states that, “in addition to any consequences arising from their actions, they should be effectively supported so that they are helped not to repeat such delinquent behaviours. If this is achieved, then the benefit will not only be for these children and the school, but for society as a whole.”
One can only hope that this new initiative by the Ministry of Education will be implemented with the start of the new school year and will endure over time, given that in the past there have been prevention and intervention programmes which delivered positive results but were subsequently downgraded or abandoned.
As a philology teacher at a secondary school in Limassol who participated in a literacy programme put it: “We need to understand that education is not only for the ‘strong’ students. That the role of the teacher is not to help the strong become stronger while discarding the weak. Because by rejecting these children, we detach them from the collective whole, condemn them to the margins, and push them towards delinquency. These children already arrive at secondary school ‘angry’, or worryingly withdrawn, as a result of their perceived rejection from the unified school environment and their marginalisation. I firmly believe that it is fair to assess these children according to the progress they make within the framework of their own abilities, taking seriously the conscientious and strenuous effort they make in order to bridge the gap separating them from others. These children can be helped, deserve to be helped, and we are obliged as educators to help them.”
Another philology teacher at a secondary school, referring to children included in the programme, noted that: “At the initial stage they could not function as a group and their ‘ego’ dominated, but over time, self-concentration, cooperation, discipline, free thinking, open dialogue and mutual support began to prevail. Their antisocial behaviour started to recede, and they began to feel that they now belonged to the social whole…”
