Zero tolerance for violence in schools

The authorities are trying by all means to combat violence in schools, the Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, declared that his message is "Zero tolerance' for aggressions in pre-university and higher education institutions. His message comes in the context in which more than half of the students complain that they are victims of various forms of violence, the most frequent form being verbal: "Which is a very important thing for us, because, based on the data that we also have, on some analyses that we have seen from World Vision, for example, over half of the students we have in schools complain that they are victims of various forms of violence. Of course, the most frequent form of violence they invoke refers to verbal violence, but the number is too high. It is an unacceptable number, especially given the fact that we have a lot of decisions, laws, government decisions, ministerial orders, methodologies, instructions that we have given in the system, to control this phenomenon. My message is zero tolerance for violence in educational institutions, pre-university and higher, but very importantly, these mechanisms that we have created and that were created before I was minister, we will improve them and develop them, they must not remain forms without substance. We all must give them substance, so as to protect, as I said, the pupils and students and the entire staff". UNICEF statistics show that more than 1 in 3 pupils aged between 13 and 15 years old are confronted with bullying, approximately 1 in 3 pupils aged between 13 and 15 years old are involved in physical fights. Almost 720 million school-age children live in countries where corporal punishment at school is not completely prohibited.

In Romania, bullying was legally regulated in 2019, through Law no. 221/2019 amending and supplementing National Education Law no. 1/2011. "In educational units and in all spaces intended for education and vocational training, behaviors that consist of psychological violence - bullying are prohibited.", the aforementioned law states. Each educational unit is obliged to introduce the objective of "school with zero tolerance for violence" in the Internal Order Regulation.