Report: Estonia Among Europe's Worst for School Bullying, Situation Slowly Improving
Only a few European countries have more school bullying than does Estonia, according to Statistics Estonia's recent "Child Well-Being" report, the focus of a seminar held yesterday by the Justice Chancellor's office.
Basing its figures on a study held in 2009, the report said Estonia was the fourth worst in Europe in terms of the percentage of children who are victims of frequent bullying.
Another study showed that of 29 European countries, only Lithuania, Latvia and Romania topped Estonia in incidences of school bullying.
Forty-one percent of children had experienced bullying from fellow pupils at least once in the months preceding the survey.
Statistics Estonia said that among the 11-year-old age group, Estonia came second after Lithuania in the highest percentage of pupils who had experienced bullying, and third after Lithuania and Belgium among the 13-year-old group.
In two of the age groups, Finland had only half the number of children who had been victims of bullying.
But there are signs of improvement. The percentage of bullied pupils had decreased during the four years since the previous survey was taken.
Estonia was only 16th from the worst position in terms of school bullying experienced by 15-year-olds.