ISE09/18-19

• Despite the "zero tolerance policy" declared by the Education Bureau ("EDB"), bullying in schools (i.e. repeated oppression over victims) has increasingly become a public concern.^{1Legend symbol denoting While bullying practices are not restricted to the school environment, the focus of this issue is the occurrence of bullying amongst students in school.} Based on a global survey released in 2017, as many as 32% of local students aged about 15 were bullied at least a few times within a month, being the worst amongst the 54 places included in comparison.^{2Legend symbol denoting In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted in 2015, Hong Kong ranked the top in terms of percentage of students being bullied (32%), much higher than that in Singapore (25%) and China (23%). See Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2017).} Local surveys also suggest double-digit magnitude of bullying victims in both primary and secondary schools, along with increased reports of such bullying incidents in media.^{3Legend symbol denoting As illustrated in several local surveys, there were 34%-38% of local students at different ages being bullied during 2018-2019. Bullying incidents were also covered by media occasionally, for instance, a student from a secondary school in Ma On Shan was reported being pinned down on ground and assaulted by his peers in January 2019. See明報(2019), 香港01(2018) and South China Morning Post (2019).} Members have raised concerns over the school bullying problem in the Legislative Council on at least two occasions over the past three years.^{4Legend symbol denoting A Member proposed in November 2016 "school bullying" as an item for discussion at the Legislative Council Panel on Education, while three other Members issued a joint letter on 28 January 2019 requesting the Panel to discuss the same issue.}

• Since 2004, EDB has launched the "Co-creating a Harmonious School" resource packages, encouraging school-based measures to combat bullying upon provision of additional resources. Yet there are concerns that school management and teachers accord a lower priority to the bullying issue, amidst the examination-oriented culture in the local education system.^{5Legend symbol denoting 林芷楓(2018) and黃家樑(2019).} Moreover, in the absence of mandatory reporting and mechanism of oversight by the third-party, there is a view that schools tend to downplay such bullying incidents to minimize the adverse implications on school reputation.^{6Legend symbol denoting MWYO (2019) and香港01(2019).}

• In Taiwan, school bullying used to be a serious problem, but the situation has improved visibly after a regulatory reform in 2012, which laid down a centralized mandatory reporting and investigation mechanism for suspected bullying cases. With only 11% of its students reported being bullied, Taiwan was ranked amongst the bottom in the aforementioned global survey.^{7Legend symbol denoting Taiwan took the second bottom position amongst the 54 places included in the ranking exercise, next to the Netherlands. This piece selects Taiwan for study, because it is predominantly a Chinese society and its policy is deemed to have more policy relevance for Hong Kong.} This issue of Essentials reviews the policies to tackle school bullying in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Handling of school bullying in Hong Kong

• Adverse effects of school bullying: According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD"), school bullying is a systematic abuse of power, involving "repeated oppression" of a less powerful person by a more powerful person(s) in a school environment. It can take place in various forms (e.g. physically, verbally and cyber-bullying) amongst students or even between teachers and students.^{8Legend symbol denoting In Hong Kong, bullying is defined as those malicious and repetitive acts that are harmful to others under a state of imbalance of power. See Education Bureau (2019a) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2017).} School bullying has "serious consequences for both the bully and the victim", as they both tend to have lower self-esteem and academic results, as well as display symptoms of depression and anxiety. These emotional and behavioural problems may carry forward to adulthood.^{9Legend symbol denoting United Nations (2018).}
• Magnitude on bullying in local schools: There are no administrative statistics of school bullying, as local schools have no obligation to report all cases to EDB. Based on those guidance and disciplinary ("GD") cases submitted to EDB annually, the number of students involved in bullying in such GD cases had declined by 20% to about 200 students between 2013-2014 and 2017-2018 school years, with students with special education needs ("SEN") more likely to be victims.^{10Legend symbol denoting The reported GD cases included bullying in primary and secondary schools from public sector only, while the cases that involved students with SEN increased from 20 to 48 during the same period. According to a study commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission in 2012, 26% of students with SEN are often bullied by their classmates, which is significantly higher than that of regular students (18%). See Education Bureau (2019b) and the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2012).} Yet there are doubts that these figures may have under-estimated the magnitude of bullying in schools.^{11Legend symbol denoting 黃家樑(2019) and MWYO (2019).} As bullying incidents can tarnish school reputation, school management tends to downplay the bullying element, alleging such incidents are just "playing" amongst students.^{12Legend symbol denoting For example, the secondary school in endnote (2) described the case as "playing that went too far". Some considered that this illustrated the ambiguous interpretation of bullying by schools.}
• As an alternative indicator, the magnitude of local school bullying can be gauged from a self-reported survey conducted under the Programme for International Student Assessment ("PISA") by OECD. Some 5 000 local students aged 15 randomly selected from 138 secondary schools needed to fill in a questionnaire on student well-being during the PISA test, including questions on school bullying. Based on the survey results, 32% of students in Hong Kong reported being bullied for at least a few times a month, almost twice the average figure of 19% for the 33 member states of OECD. For the 54 places included in this ranking exercise, school bullying in Hong Kong is also the most serious. Some critics also suggest that school bullying is a serious "hidden" problem in Hong Kong, partly due to negligence of the problem under heavy study pressure and inadequate understanding of the school management regarding the nature and implications of bullying.^{13Legend symbol denoting ITS Education Asia (2018) and明周文化(2018).}
• Existing anti-school bullying policy: EDB reiterates its "zero tolerance" stance towards school bullying, along with publication of three sets of resource packages named after "Co-creating a Harmonious School" for handling and prevention of school bullying. The gist of the policy includes:
  
  

  (a)	School-based policy: EDB recommends all schools to adopt a "Whole School Approach", engaging teaching staff, students and parents to combat school bullying, albeit on a voluntary basis. It requires each school to lay down its own reporting mechanism and handling procedures and take each bullying incident seriously but reporting to EDB is not mandatory;
  (b)	Anti-bullying campaign: Since 2011-2012 school year, EDB has launched the Harmonious School - Anti-bullying Campaign to raise students' awareness of anti-bullying, along with provision of teaching resources and promotion materials. Anti-bullying Day or Week is also organized in over 500 participating schools during 2011-2017, covering half of the overall primary and secondary schools; and
  (c)	Teacher training: "School bullying" has been a compulsory component in a module of certificate course on student guidance and discipline for teachers since 2007-2008 school year.14Legend symbol denoting The module covers content of 48 hours, including intervention approaches, background understanding, crisis management procedures, preventive measures and consultation skills for school bullying, cyber-bullying and homophobic bullying. By 2018-2019 school year, around 1 700 teachers have completed such training, accounting for 3% of total number of teachers.15Legend symbol denoting Besides, the EDB also organized 14 workshops during the first six months in 2018-2019 school year, helping about 1 000 teachers to enhance their capability of preventing and handling bullying acts in schools.

• Issues of concerns: Nevertheless, there is still concern over the effectiveness of the above policies. First, students are generally reluctant to report bullying without an accessible, confidential and trustworthy reporting mechanism. Local surveys showed that less than half of the bullying victims would seek help from their friends, parents and teachers.^{16Legend symbol denoting Agent of Change Foundation (2018) and Hong Kong Playground Association (2016).} Secondly, as discussed above, school management pays less attention to anti-bullying in an examination-oriented system. Also, teachers are reportedly too busy to deal with prevention of bullying amidst heavy workload.^{17Legend symbol denoting 香港01(2017)。} Thirdly, as schools usually assign teachers of the GD team to attend bullying-related training, other frontline teachers may not have enough training or experience to handle bullying incident in their classes.^{18Legend symbol denoting The handling of bullying cases is not restricted to GD teachers only. According to the survey conducted by Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers in June 2019, over 80% of teachers had handled school bullying cases over the past six months. See 香港教育工作者聯會(2019) and珠海新聞(2019).}

Regulatory measures of school bullying in Taiwan

• In Taiwan, school bullying used to be a serious education issue before the 2010s, with about one-tenth of students reporting being bullied for at least once a week during 2004-2007.^{19Legend symbol denoting 邱靖惠、蕭慧琳(2009)。} In the early 2010s, several bullying cases in Taoyuan and Hsinchu had sparked widespread concerns across Taiwan, precipitating necessary policy reforms.^{20Legend symbol denoting A school principal from a junior high school in Taoyuan City was accused for disregarding bullying cases in December 2010, while a student from a junior high school in Hsinchu City was attacked by several senior high school students in March 2011, with the related video being widely shared online. See林官蓓(2012) and Taipei Times (2011).}
• Policy reform in the 2010s: In November 2011, the Ministry of Education ("MOE") amended the Educational Fundamental Act, urging for a new mechanism to combat school bullying. This was followed by the launch of an executive order namely the "Regulation on the Prevention of School Bullying" ("Regulation") in July 2012, which was subsequently enhanced in November 2018 with detailed guidelines on handling bullying cases.^{21Legend symbol denoting 教育部(2012 and 2018).}
• Here are the salient features of the anti-bullying regulation in Taiwan:
  
  

  (a)	Mandatory reporting of all suspected cases in 24 hours: Under the Regulation, bullying is listed as mandatory reporting incident in Taiwan. All schools are required to notify MOE within 24 hours after receiving report on any suspected bullying case. School staff members are subject to penalty such as fines if they fail to do so;
  (b)	Dedicated hotline and website on bullying: Since 2010, MOE has set up a 24-hour dedicated hotline for reports on school bullying. In addition, MOE has launched a specialized website in 2011 to provide an extra channel for students to report bullying cases.22Legend symbol denoting 教育部(2019)。 All the reports will be referred to schools for further investigation;
  (c)	Immediate investigation with well-defined timeframe: Each school need to formulate their own anti-bullying committee for prevention and investigation, with membership comprising the school principal, teachers, social workers, counsellors, parent representatives, academics and students of senior high schools.  On receipt of a suspected bullying report, such committee should convene a meeting within three working days. Also, the investigation report should be submitted to the complainants within two months and to MOE when the appeal procedure (if any) is completed;23Legend symbol denoting If the complainant is not satisfied with the result, he or she may file an appeal within 20 days of receipt of investigation report. The Committee would reconsider the justifications provided and notify the complainant the appeal result within 30 days.
  (d)	Third-party monitoring: If the bullying complaints are substantiated, schools will suggest in the investigation reports necessary counselling arrangements and penalty to the involved parties.24Legend symbol denoting Common measures to respond to the bullying include demerit points, expulsion from school, juvenile protective measures and criminal sanctions depending on the nature and seriousness of the incident. For those teachers who bullied and caused severe physical or mental injury to students, they would be dismissed upon vetting and approval of the Teacher Evaluation Committee from school. For more severe cases, they will call for assistance from the police and external agencies (e.g. social and welfare workers). Moreover, MOE also carries out audit and evaluation on a regular basis to ensure all schools handle the bullying cases properly; and
  (e)	School-based policy and publicity campaign: Similar to Hong Kong, schools in Taiwan should formulate their school-based anti-bullying policy, on top of the above mandatory requirements. Schools are also required to organize anti-bullying training for their teachers in each academic term, in order to strengthen their willingness and capability in coping with bullying.

• Proposed anti-bullying law in Taiwan: While reporting and investigation of bullying is a mandatory obligation for schools in Taiwan, the bullying action itself is not yet a criminal offence in Taiwan. Over the years, some segments in Taiwanese society have urged enactment of dedicated anti-bullying laws to strengthen enforcement.^{25Legend symbol denoting 立法院(2015 and 2017).} But this met with opposition, as criminal liability seems to be too harsh for teenagers making mistakes in the early stages of their lives. The Taiwanese government says it keeps an open mind on such proposals at this juncture.

• Policy effectiveness: Implementation of the mandatory notification and investigation of all suspected cases seems to have effectively prevented school bullying in Taiwan, with the number of confirmed bullying incidents slumping by 70% during 2011-2016, from 554 cases to 168 cases.^{26Legend symbol denoting 國家教育研究院(2019)。} In global ranking, only 11% of Taiwanese students reported being bullied at least a few times a month, just about half of the average figure of 19% in OECD and amongst the lowest of all places included in comparison.

Prepared by Sunny LAM
Research Office
Information Services Division
Legislative Council Secretariat
6 September 2019