Praneeta Prakash 
[File Photo]
More than 25,000 cases of violence were recorded in schools last year, raising serious concerns about student safety and well-being.
National Substance Abuse Advisory Council Chief Executive Josua Naisele revealed the statistics during a presentation on student behavioral trends over the past five years.
Naisele states that the high number of incidents marks a worrying trend, with primary schools now recording more violence cases than secondary schools.
“The common types of violence are name-calling, disrespect, swearing, slapping, beating, punching, and bullying. So the trend seems to be, if you look at the numbers, it runs into 20,000. Last year we had recorded about 25,000. So that is the issue of violence.”
Naisele said the increase in school violence was part of a broader set of challenges facing students, including drug use, cyberbullying, sexual offenses, teenage pregnancies, and mental health struggles.
These are the things that our students are going through. The question is, how are we trying to address that? In school, you may be asking. So we have the policies, strengthening of policies in school, the behavior management policy, the child protection policy, the drug policy, the counselling policy, and the student code of conduct policy.
The Council is also working with school chaplains, community leaders, and assistant principals to build a coordinated response to student issues, supported by monitoring, evaluation, and awareness campaigns across communities and schools.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
