In the face of school violence: greater caution.
Pfoto taken from Facebook.
Among the televised interventions during the recent III International Congress of Basic Secondary Education, one of the students referred to the need to combat all types of violence in educational institutions; an issue that, due to its complexity, does not escape the attention of the Ministry of Education in Cuba.
Although there are still gaps for its identification, the ministerial ordinances of the educational policy include a protocol of action in these cases. In this regard, Addys Martínez Bernal, Deputy Director General of Provincial Education in Matanzas, argues.
«In recent years, efforts have been directed towards inclusive education, in whose process the educational contexts family, school, school group, community and society in general intervene. Diagnosing in a timely manner in this context the educational needs of each individuality becomes imperative and makes it possible to determine actions with a preventive character, where violent or aggressive actions demand special attention».
This process, in addition to the work of teachers, also requires the support of other agencies and organizations, since, as pointed out by Martínez Bernal, it requires the identification of students who live in aggressive or violent environments.
«The identification of students with manifestations of this type, present in their interpersonal relationships with peers or teachers, starts with the individual diagnosis carried out in each institution, but also implies the analysis of the behaviors that are appreciated in their families.
«The preventive work groups in each municipality have the function of organizing the revision of the strategies elaborated in the educational institutions with the support of specialists from Diagnostic and Orientation Centers, psychopedagogues and methodologists of the educational level.»
It also highlights the responsibility of each factor in the implementation of this protocol to achieve the quality of the guidance process, as well as timely follow-up.
Epistemological studies of this scourge in the national context recognize important reconfigurations in its forms of emergence, ranging from physical aggression, discrimination, exclusion, bullying, to symbolic and even sociocultural violence.
With the rise of Information and Communication Technologies, new manifestations are gaining momentum that demand special attention from educators. Its forms and consequences have occupied more space in the media during the last years, as a resource to alert about a real problem, that although it does not distinguish the reality of the national educational environment, it does deserve greater precautions.
The immediate reporting of any act of violence, as well as the development of these issues in schools and the constant supervision of the family in close contact with educational institutions are indispensable, because although there is interest and strategies for its effective confrontation, there is still much to be done in this path towards the visibility and treatment of school violence.
Written by Jeidis Suárez García.