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A workshop organized jointly by the Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports (MoESCS) of Armenia, Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), and UNICEF was held at ASPU.
The workshop entitled "Safe School: Education without Bullying" aimed to prevent and eliminate the climate and factors that contribute to violence and bullying in schools, create a safe and supportive school environment that helps prevent bullying and take educative, preventive and intervention measures to address bullying.
The event was attended by representatives of the education sector, local and international organizations, secondary school teachers and guests.
Araksia Svajyan, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, considered the topic to be one of the most urgent and important issues in the education system. “We constantly talk about improving the quality of education, but it should be noted that it is not only determined by the content of education and teaching methods, but also by the learning environment in schools, where children are safe and secure and are able to demonstrate sufficient academic progress, as is expected of them,” she stressed.
The MoESCS official added that they receive calls about violence every day, which means that there are problems starting from preschools to vocational educational institutions.
She voiced hope that the workshop will identify and perhaps find solutions to the problems that exist in schools today: everyone should make efforts to ensure that educational institutions truly become safe and secure environments, both physically and psychologically.
In that context, the deputy minister spoke about the government programs designed to prevent bullying in schools and emphasized the importance of work aimed at early prevention and detection [of bullying cases] in preschool institutions. Araksia Svajyan also spoke about the certification of preschool teachers, stressing that it will ensure progress in professional development.
Welcoming the attendees, Marianna Harutyunyan, ASPU Vice-Rector for HR Management and International Cooperation, emphasized the importance and relevance of the topic.
Using scientific facts, she dwelt on different types of bullying and noted that research shows that bullying has a unique impact on a child's brain and mental health, and makes the work with children even more difficult in schools. "This further emphasizes the importance of our efforts in bullying prevention, that’s why we are reviewing and updating professional educational programs at ASPU. We are doing this so that future teachers, upon entering school, have certain knowledge and skills to be able to address this serious problem, which, unfortunately, is developing even more on social media,” Marianna Harutyunyan said.
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, Director of the Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center, emphasized the role of schools in creating a safe and secure environment for children. She stressed it was the first workshop of its kind and added that more workshops will be organized in the future.
She then spoke about development of anti-bullying policies in schools, priority issues and measures, as well as the guidelines and manuals created in that direction.
Artashes Torosyan, Acting Director at the "National Center for Education Development and Innovation" Foundation, Silvia Mestroni, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Armenia, Vagharshak Matikyan, Head of the Education Inspection Body of Armenia, and Victoria Ohanyan, UNICEF Access to Justice Program Officer, also addressed the workshop participants.
They defined bullying as a phenomenon, emphasized the importance of joint work between educators and parents, and outlined actions that will contribute to the creation of a safe and secure learning environment.
The speeches were accompanied by interesting reports, interactive presentations, and master classes. Speaking about teachers’ well-being the speakers stressed that it is important to stay motivated but avoid burnout. They also focused on positive interaction and relationships between teachers and learners as a prerequisite for a safe school environment, isolation as a form of social bullying and possible ways to overcome it, psychological strategies for combating bullying, the influence of stress in pedagogical work and its self-regulation, and various issues related to bullying.
