SINGAPORE: Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng said last week that the Education Ministry doesn’t tolerate bullying in any form.

Though he said that every child has a right to feel safe and secure in Singapore schools, he also qualified that instances of bullying here are few, pointing to a global 2015 survey that said only 5 per cent of Singapore’s 15-year-old students experience physical bullying.

He was responding to a parliament question on the extent of bullying and relevant measures undertaken for both teachers and students involved.

His answer in Parliament came on the back of a widely circulated footage of a classroom brawl in St Hilda’s Secondary School, where an adult was present but did not intervene as he “did not have the training or authority to manage the situation” as an intern with an external agency.

A major problem in schools globally, bullying is certainly not unique to a few schools or to Singapore.

It has far-reaching consequences for a child’s emotional health, because of the aggressive acts and personal insults levelled repeatedly at the victim. Often, the bully is significantly more powerful than the victim, making it difficult for the latter to defend his or herself.

A loss of self-esteem, depression or even suicidal thoughts can set in. But it is also bullies who suffer, for domineering acts, when not corrected can contribute to further anti-social behaviour.

SCHOOL BULLYING AS A GLOBAL PHENOMENON

Worldwide, the percentage of children affected by bullying in schools tend to vary substantially. But this does not mean that some countries are more affected by the problem of school bullying than others.

This discrepancy is often a result of challenges in comparison because the extent of bullying is measured using different methods and questions.

For example, some children may be asked to recall instances of bullying that had happened to them in the past month, while others may be asked about bullying that has ever occurred in their lifetime.

Reports of bullying incidents may also come from the children themselves in the form of self- or peer-reports, or from adults such as teachers or parents. These may not agree, since children may not report candidly, and parents or teachers may not be fully aware of bullying, or its extent, for a particular child.

Some research studies do not define what bullying means, and instead leave it to the children or adults to interpret the term in their own ways.

Overall, the myriad ways in which school bullying is measured make any data on prevalence less meaningful and less comparable, even within the same country.

As a result, researchers and practitioners have now largely moved from a descriptive approach of reporting the prevalence of school bullying in their respective countries, to directing research effort into finding effective ways to minimise bullying behaviour and to help victims cope, regardless of prevalence figures.

They assume, reasonably, that bullying occurs in every school in every country. No matter what percentage of children experience bullying in any given school, the fact that bullying can bring about serious negative consequences for children should be reason enough for adults to intervene.

THE ROLE OF SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES IN INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION

Interventions against bullying typically take place in schools, focusing on individual students affected by bullying, such as assertiveness training for the victims and counselling involving both bullies and victims.

Schools also adopt a “whole-school policy” where the focus is on establishing clear rules and disciplinary plans against bullying, building a strong peer network to protect and support victims, as well as education programmes to raise awareness of the need to create a bully-free school environment.

Such school-based interventions have had some success, with up to a 50 per cent reduction of bullying and victimisation in countries where large-scale interventions and evaluations were conducted, such as Finland, Norway and the UK.

Increasingly, educators and practitioners are including the family as part of the solution to school bullying, recognising that adult behaviour at home is easily observed and modelled at school. This is particularly relevant for younger children, where the family remains as an important sphere of influence.

Looking at the experiences children have had before school, and understanding how these may affect their conduct in school may be the key to preventing bullying from happening in the first place.

A large body of research has shown that children can learn aggression through observing aggressive behaviour by parents or caregivers.

Much as it is largely assumed that bullies are deterred by harsh discipline, studies have found that punitive practices such as physical punishment is linked to an increase in bullying behaviour.

On the other hand, parental warmth seems to be a protective factor. When parents maintain a strong affectional bond with their children, it promotes the development of empathy and greater emotion control in children, which are in turn linked to lower likelihood of aggression. Moreover, parental warmth and support also serve to protect victims from the negative outcomes of being bullied.

A high level of parental involvement is also important, with parents needing to be mindful of the possibility that their children may be involved as either a bully or a victim.

Open communication between parents and their child can be a good foundation for a strong parent-child relationship. Much as parents may want to actively monitor their child, a lot also depends on how much a child is willing to share his or her daily experiences in school.

So a supportive environment in the home where children feel at ease with confiding in their parents, as well as involved parents who maintain a good liaison with the school are critical ingredients to addressing bullying.

MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH LIKELY TO BE MOST EFFECTIVE

Taken together, it seems that a multi-pronged approach involving the individual child, the school and the family is likely to be the most effective in working towards a bully-free environment in schools.

This approach has been adopted by practitioners in Singapore who work closely with schools and the community to tackle the problem of school bullying.

For example, the Singapore Children’s Society has been involved in bully-free work since 2004, and have implemented programmes that target children. They have an email consultation service that provides emotional support for victims for instance.

There are also school- and community-level programmes including campaigns to promote a bully-free environment and public education programmes, in addition to interventions targeting the family, such as through talks to equip parents with skills to support children who may be involved in bullying.

However, much remains to be done, as the nature of bullying becomes increasingly complicated with the advancement of technology, such that a child no longer needs to be physically present in school to be the subject of bullying.

They can be bullied online, where taunts and other acts are documented, widely circulated and live on, making it hard for victims to forgive because they can’t forget.

Given the detrimental effects of being in a bullying relationship, anti-bullying work should remain a top priority issue, and actualised through a concerted effort involving students, parents, educators and educational authorities, researchers as well as the community at large.

Cheung Hoi Shan is assistant professor of psychology at Yale-NUS College.

ROCKHAMPTON, Australia: In a cluttered room filled with six pilots who fly Apache helicopters, Military Expert (ME) 4 Lim Bi Fang holds court.

The 28-year-old Air Force engineer, who oversees maintenance of the attack helicopters at Exercise Wallaby, stands in front of the room, briefing her colleagues on repair works done the day before.

This is the first time ME4 Lim is participating in the exercise, and she is relishing how it allows her to work with personnel from various parts of the Air Force.

“It’s not just a one-person effort to make the aircraft fly, it’s a lot of people,” she told Channel NewsAsia on a scorching day outside Rockhampton Airport, where three Apaches sat idle with rotors moored to the ground.

“Over here, I also need to work with the different trades. We have engineers that work on the rotors, air frames and electrical systems.”

Back home, ME4 Lim works on the Apaches too, but she does it with her own team and focuses on its rotor systems, or “anything that turns”, as she puts it.

The AH-64D Apache Attack Helicopter boasts a “lethal array of armament” and can travel up to 278kmh, according to the Ministry of Defence website. One pilot described it as a “big boy’s toy”.

“I always found it interesting to know how things work how, and flying is something that I find quite amazing,” ME4 Lim added.

Her fascination with flight, fine-tuned during her days at Nanyang Technological University studying aerospace engineering, drew her to the Air Force.

“I wanted to know more about how to operate a fleet of aircraft, and this is a military organisation so it’s something I cannot get outside,” she said.

“So I thought might as well, while I’m still young, come here and see what it’s all about.”

When ME4 Lim told her parents about joining the military, they asked her to do “whatever made me happy”.

“I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t seem to be worried,” she said with a laugh. “But of course I was so happy, because I didn’t need to spend a lot of time trying to convince them that this is what I want to do.”

She started off by working on the Super Pumas and the Seahawks, a naval helicopter, before switching to the Apaches.

Her eyes lit up as she spoke about her keen interest in helicopters. “They are very complex and unstable mechanisms; a lot of components coming together just to fly,” she enthused. “It’s amazing how something so heavy can actually take off.”

That has kept her going in the Air Force for four years now, but she admitted that it has at times been a challenge.

“The work never stops, so long the aircraft is flying,” she said, “It can come any time of the day – midnight, 2am – they will call you up and say something went wrong with the aircraft, so you’ve got to come in and see what’s wrong.”

Once, she finished work at 6pm and was halfway home on the road when her superior texted her. “Something critical happened and the aircraft had to land,” she said. “So, I made a U-turn.”

ME4 Lim, who is based at Sembawang Air Base, only left the office in the wee hours of the morning. “No choice,” she said, as these are operational requirements.

The fact that she is a woman, however, is not one of those challenges.

“There’s slowly more and more women joining the force,” she said. “Engineering in the military is not about gender. It doesn’t play a role. That’s a fact, that’s what I really think.”

ME4 Lim said she does not face any difficulties because of her gender, but she knows that is not the case for other women in the military, like those “deployed to do more hands-on work”.

“But from what I observed, they will always do their best to be equal to their male counterparts,” she said. “Some of them even lift weights just to be able to do that particular maintenance work, which is something very inspiring.”

Nevertheless, she still gets looks of surprise when telling others about her job. “People don’t expect that to be my job,” she said.

“Those who meet me for the first time, and I tell them I’m from the Air Force, they will think I’m a pilot. But I will correct them and tell them I’m an engineer. The Air Force is not just about pilots.”

Sure enough, there are more than 500 Air Force personnel participating in this year’s Exercise Wallaby, with assets including four Apaches, six Super Pumas and two Chinook helicopters.

ME4 Lim is returning home in slightly more than a week, and she intends to stick around with the Air Force for a little while longer.

“What I found memorable here at Wallaby are the times that I spent with my colleagues just getting the aircraft ready for the next day,” she said.

“There’s still some stuff I want to see. I like to try new things. I want to go sailing with the Seahawks.”

Her advice for other girls thinking of becoming just like her?

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” she said. “Keep an open mind and just try it out. That’s the only way, really.”