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Description
Research shows that bullying at school is a serious problem in Estonia. On average, every fifth child in Estonia is currently a victim of bullying, making Estonia one of the leaders in Europe in terms of bullying at school. With the support of the project evidence-based KiVa anti-bullying program will be offered to students and teachers starting from the 7th grade. As a result of the project, the schools have efficient tools for the prevention of bullying and have improved means to tackle sensitive issues in upper grades. Exercises and topics in KiVa program materials help advance wider support for human rights and contribute to the prevention of unequal treatment in older age. KiVa Foundation also offers support to school personnel to implement KiVa program both in Estonian and Russian language. Final beneficiaries of the project are students who benefit from the program and enjoy bullying-free school-life. Indirect beneficiary is the society as a whole as the bullying at school can leave a mark for a lifetime on victims of bullying: mental health, physical well-being, social relationships, academic performance and all kinds of life choices. The program facilitates the assertion of values like equal treatment and prevention of hate speech thus reducing in the future the societal costs on health care, social welfare and justice systems.
Summary of project results
Research shows that bullying at school is a serious problem in Estonia. On average, every fifth child in Estonia is currently a victim of bullying, making Estonia one of the leaders in Europe in terms of bullying at school. All this can be prevented. The KiVa program, offered by Bullying-free School Foundation, provides schools with very clear, specific and effective guidelines and tools on how to prevent and reduce bullying, and how to deal with bullying in a way that can be resolved.
During the project the organization was able to:
1) Introduce and implement the 3rd anti-bullying module to Estonian and Russian speaking schools, which was a missing element from a school-wide approach until then. The 3rd module aims to promote anti-bullying knowledge, behaviour and values among older students (ages 14-16) employing age-specific content and methods. With this project the organization was able to reach and successfully on-board 86% of schools implementing the KiVa program in Estonia.
2) Moreover, a dedicated workgroup of experts and trainers was established for developing necessary in-service teacher training courses. As a result additional training courses were worked out specifically to support the implementation of the 3rd module. Futhermore, with the support of the project we offered a special programmes during our yearly Summer and Winter school regarding cyber-bullying, sexual education etc.
3) The organization has worked out additional materials and know-how based on the needs revealed via monitoring the stakeholders’ needs (cyber-bullying specific materials, training courses for parents etc.).
4) With the support of the project the organization offers now a more sustainable consultation service through a network of nearly 15 Estonian trainers, most of whom are certified as international KiVa program trainers in Turku University. In addition, the organization has worked out and established a thorough support system to schools via daily mentoring service.
The project has had an enormous impact on disseminating evidence based anti-bullying methodology to older students in Estonian schools and developing sustainable support means to teachers implementing it. The practices of the Bullying-Free School Foundation, established in the course of the project, will continue in the ways developed and tested in the project, so that the whole-school KiVa program will reach more and more Estonian schools. In order for the knowledge, skills and attitudes contained in the KiVa program materials to help promote wider support for human rights and prevent unequal treatment. The prevention elements of the KiVa program at the third school level enable, among other things, the necessary value education to reduce discrimination, to establish equal treatment as a core value in young people, as well as to prevent and stop hate speech against vulnerable groups.
The project also aimed to reduce bullying and victimization significantly. The achievement of this goal is difficult to assess due to epidemiological situations in Estonian schools in springs 2020 and 2021. The annual student survey was conducted in both springs but since the survey was preceded by long distance-learning periods, the survey results were heavily affected by that. Since the Foundation continues monitoring bullying and victimization in this project’s target groups, the following years may give better possibilities to assess the effects of KiVa Unit 3 module.