Teachers’ and students’ perception of the bullying problem and its management in public secondary schools in Iringa District

This study aimed at exploring the teachers’ and students’ perception toward bullying problem in public secondary schools. The study examined the extent to which bullying was a problem, as perceived by students and teachers, its determinants, and the extent to which the school authorities played a role in eradicating bullying problems in their schools. The study was conducted in four public secondary schools in Iringa District. It involved a total of 196 respondents, categorised into students, student leaders, teachers, and heads of schools, discipline teachers, school counsellors, school board chairpersons obtained through purposive, stratified, convenient and simple random and sampling procedures. Documentary reviews, questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. Quantitative data were computed through SPSS software programme, summarised and presented through tables and graphs and qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The findings indicated that bullying behaviour was a serious problem in public secondary schools. Over three quarters of students reported to have been bullied by peers and teachers. Both boys and girls acted as both bullies and victims of bullying. Girls practiced indirect bullying while boys practiced direct and physical bullying. Bullying mostly occurred in the absence of teachers’ supervision. Bullying behaviour among secondary school students was associated with grade level, age, social economic status, authoritarian parenting style and school composition. Teachers bullied students particularly through corporal punishment. School authority reaction on bullying acts was focused mostly on the direct and physical types of bullying behaviour than indirect bullying. Student’s disclosure of bullying incidents to school management was inhibited for fear of reprisals and school management mechanisms included students character assessment, motivation as well as physical punishment. The study unveil that awareness of the existence of bullying, its determinants and different mechanisms for eradicating were viewed differently by teachers and students. The study unveiled that awareness of the existence of bullying behaviour, its determinants and different mechanisms for eradicating were viewed differently by teachers and students. It is recommended that frequent and more bullying problem should be given more attention to minimize its adverse effects on the students by establishing the programme to raise the awareness to both teachers and students on bullying, effective implementation of the existing rules as well as creating life skills programme among students in schools. Further studies to explore bullying behaviour and its effects on academic performance in secondary schools should be conducted on country wide coverage of schools to provide firmer generalizations and implementation of positive measures country wide.