10,018 PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN PH WITHOUT ANTI-BULLYING POLICY — EDCOM 2

SOME 10,018 public schools have no localized anti-bullying policy despite being required by Republic Act 10627 passed in 2013.

This is according to Department of Education officials during a House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education hearing on Wednesday, November 13.

The hearing, presided over by Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) co-chairperson Rep. Roman Romulo, discussed the status of anti-bullying policies in DepEd schools.

Data presented by EDCOM 2 Executive Director Dr. Karol Mark Yee illustrated how bullying affects student performance.

Data from international assessments (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), Grade 4 students who were bullied suffered severe dips in their performance in Math and Science subjects.

“Students who were never bullied scored 351 in Math, while those who reported being bullied weekly scored 269. In Science, those who were not bullied scored 318, while those who reported being bullied weekly scored 214”, Yee said.

“Aside from depriving our students of a safe school environment, there really are tangible effects of bullying among our students. As we can see with the TIMSS 2019 data, student performance in the classroom is severely affected”, he said.

This is confirmed by various international assessments, including the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM), which show that the highest prevalence of bullying is in the Philippines.

In 2022, data showed that 43% of girls and 53% of boys reported being the victim of bullying at least a few times a month. This is double the OECD average of 20% and 21% for girls and boys respectively.