EDITORIAL

By February 4, 2019Editorial, News

Bully-free schools, why not?

AT the Question Hour of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan last week, the board members were confronted with the rising cases of bullying in schools after they invited the province’s division schools superintendents. Alas, only Division II chief came –  Dr. Donato Balderas Jr.  But by his revelations and thoughts alone, the provincial board already had a pretty good picture of what was happening.

That the number of reported cases was increasing could not have shocked anyone but Dr. Balderas pointed out a positive side –  that more student victims are reporting their experience in the hands of bullies in school. There are more students who do not wish to continue to be victims.

In addition, he raised two points that made Pangasinenses realize the core of the problem and that there is hope to end if not minimize bullying in schools a). The bullied and the bully are both victims. b) It is possible to have a bully-free school.

His suggestion that all pupils and students in his division, from kindergarten to Grade 12, will be made to recognize acts of bullying with pledge to stop it and report it by making them sign a manifesto in the level of language they understand, is a positive proactive step.

The objective? To make schools bully-free! The proposed mode of action may appear to be trite and unexceptional but it has not been done. If the activity doesn’t stop bullying, at the very least schoolchildren are made to realize to understand the implications of being a bully and being bullied.

DepEd should attempt to adopt this activity nationwide to give its Child Protection Policy a significant impact not only on the schoolchildren but teachers as well.

Wrong foot

IN basketball, you lay up with the wrong foot and chances are you will miss the shot.  Seemingly, that’s what the opposition party has done.  Why it put up only 8 candidates for the May senatorial polls is a puzzle even Einstein might find hard to solve.  Do we not vote for 12 senators in the midterm election?  With an 8-person slate, the opposition has shockingly conceded 4 slots outright to President Duterte’s camp.  And, as if to deride the opposition, Mr. Duterte has also named his 8 bets—initially, of course—headed no less by Bong Go, his pal of nearly a quarter of a century whose pro-poor  “Malasakit” medical-driven centers are fast becoming a hit nationwide. 

We do not rely much on surveys but if only to dramatize the opposition’s sad state of affairs, not one from their slate was in the Magic 12 from the last results of public opinion.  Portentous trend?

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