Written answers

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Department of Education and Skills

Cyberbullying Issues

Photo of Derek NolanDerek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

243. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will introduce an awareness and educational programme on cyberbullying in post-primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43250/15]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Action Plan on Bullying, which was published in January 2013, sets out my Department's approach to tackling bullying and promoting an anti-bullying culture in schools. These actions focus on support for schools, teacher training, research and awareness raising and aim to ensure that all forms of bullying are addressed. Implementation of the actions in the Plan is ongoing and good progress has been made in a number of areas.

New National Anti-Bullying Procedures for schools, which were published in September 2013, are currently being implemented by all 4,000 primary and post primary schools in the country. Training materials for parents, teachers and Boards of Management are also being developed and rolled out.

The Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum provides a unique opportunity for young people to develop skills and competencies to learn about themselves, to care for themselves and others and to make informed decisions about their overall health and well-being. Cyber bullying should be considered in the context of our approaches to dealing with bullying.

Webwise, the internet safety initiative of the PDST Technology in Education, and the PDST Wellbeing Team (formerly the SPHE Support Service) have worked together, to develop the #Up2Us educational resource to be used by schools in implementing the SPHE curriculum in the Junior Cycle.

This Up2Us Anti-Cyber Bullying Resource is designed to enable students to develop a positive sense of themselves and a commitment to caring for themselves and others. This set of ten lesson plans is intended to be used by teachers and schools who wish to address the issue of bullying as a whole, with particular focus on the issue of cyber bullying.

Under the recently published Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020 one of the objectives is to promote responsible and ethical use of the internet and related technologies, which includes an action to develop additional learning resources for teachers to integrate cyber-bullying awareness and prevention into each school's provision for Wellbeing including its curriculum programme for Social, Personal and Health, Education (SPHE).

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.