A TEACHER of the St. Louis University Laboratory Elementary School (SLU-LES) checks an antibullying exhibit made by elementary pupils at the lobby of SLU-LES building. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
MANILA, Philippines—Elementary and secondary schools have until Thursday (July 3) to submit to the Department of Education their respective child protection policies and statistics on the incidence of bullying on their respective campuses.
Failure to submit the required information could mean administrative sanctions for public school officials and the revocation or suspension of a private school’s permit to operate.
In a June 18 memorandum, Education Secretary Armin Luistro directed all public and private kindergarten, elementary and high schools to submit by Thursday to their respective school division offices a copy of their anti-bullying or child protection policy as well as a report on possible incidents of bullying and retaliation from the previous year.
Luistro said that all public or private primary and secondary schools applying for DepEd recognition or permits to operate would have to submit a copy of their anti-bullying or child protection policy as an additional requirement to their applications.
The education secretary cited the “Anti-Bullying Act of 2013” Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR), which took effect on January 3 and makes mandatory the submission by public and private pre-school, elementary and high schools of their anti-bullying policies and statistics.
Under the IRR, school personnel of public kindergarten, elementary or secondary schools who fail to comply with the requirement could be subjected to administrative disciplinary proceedings.
On the other hand, the education secretary, through the regional director, may suspend or revoke the permit or recognition of a private school that does not comply.
The anti-bullying policies, under the IRR, must include intervention programs such as counseling for the bully and the victim as well as witnesses and their parents apart from imposing disciplinary measures depending on the gravity of the act and its effect.
Acts of bullying involve a person physically hurting, name-calling or insulting another person. It could also come in the form of cyber bullying and social bullying which is a deliberate, repetitive and aggressive behavior intended to hurt others or embarrass any person or group.
While public and private schools have until Thursday to submit their policies and incident reports to the school division offices, under the DepEd secretary’s memorandum the SDOs have until July 31 to report to the DepEd regional offices on the schools’ compliance with the directive and consolidate the submitted statistics and incident reports on bullying and retaliation.
The regional offices have until August 15 to report to the DepEd undersecretary for legal and legislative affairs the rate of submission of school-based child protection or anti-bullying policies as well as the regional statistics on bullying and retaliation in schools.
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