“My two sons usually come back from school; Seif (11 years old), in the fourth grade, and Omar (14 years old), in the seventh grade, and they are in a deplorable condition as a result of the violence and bullying they are being exposed to by their classmates which still obvious and bear the evidence to that". This is how Ahmed Al-Bashiri (35 years old), began his conversation to "Khuyut", with burning and painful tone.
Al-Bashiri says that the problem lies in the fact that his children did not do anything bad towards their colleagues which would lead them to react violently towards his two children.
He added that he did not receive any feedback from the school administration when he went to submit a complaint about the situation of his two children who has been subjected to bullying inside the school, but was surprised by the indifference and disinterest of the school management to this problem. At the same time, the father was very astonished by the school deputy manager response to him by saying: "Your children have hands to defend themselves, we have enough problems of this kind."
In this context, Yassin Al-Qubati (40 years old), an Arabic language teacher in a public school, told "Khuyut" that a group of ninth-grade students have attacked one of their teachers who was a volunteer professor of Islamic subject, working in the school since three years.
Al-Qubati explained that such violent action against teachers was not the first and will not be the last, pointing out that the phenomenon has become rampant and occurs from time to time, in addition to the violence that exists between the students themselves on a daily basis.
Fertile Environment for Bullying
It seems that there are various reasons lie behind this phenomenon, which is exacerbating very dramatically having a significant impact on the lives of students now and in the future. However, the war, which is has been broke sine seven years, and has led to the interruption of teachers’ salaries since 2016, remains the core problem for all these subsidiary consequences within the education field.
Ahmed al-Sabri (45 years old), (an alias name according to his request), who is the director of a government school, told "Khuyut" that Yemeni schools have become a fertile environment for violence in light of the ongoing war in the country.
Moreover, Al-Sabri asserts that this is happening due to the deterioration of the educational process as a result of the war, which has led to the interruption of teachers’ salaries since 2016.
Additionally, Al-Sabri pointed out in his testimonial that the exacerbation of this aggressive behavior, which has become a major phenomenon, shows that the school before the war had the most prominent role in the behavioral aspect compared to the family, stressing in his statement that it is impossible for the school alone to decrease this phenomenon, even in the event of the return of the status of the teacher and the education situation to pre-war state: "It is impossible for the school alone to limit the phenomenon of violence." He confirmed.
Learning Vacuum
In the same perspective, Ahmed Al-Daghshi, Deputy Teachers Affairs at Jamal Abdel Nasser School, and an educational supervisor in one of the Sana’a districts, attribute the ramifications of this phenomenon to the lack of learning/teaching process experienced by school students.
Al-Daghshi says that "the learning vacuum that students spent in the classrooms for more than three lessons per day is the top reason for this phenomenon, although the war is the key motive for that," noting that the interruption of teachers' salaries is the second reason for the spread of violence among students.
He added that "When the students find themselves have nothing to do in the classroom, they release out their energy and act violently, and this is including rioting and all types of aggressive behavior, until the matter develops throughout the days, months and years to violent aggressive behavior and an intolerable phenomenon."
In his testimonial, Al-Daghshi cites the efforts that he and his colleagues usually make to cover some classes that happen to be vacant due to the absence of the teaching staff, by saying: “Sometimes I have to cover some periods to back up some of my absent teacher to prevent chaos and fighting among the students of the Jamal Abdel Nasser School, which consider one of the key typical schools in Yemen.
If this is happening in Jamal Abdel Nasser School, the oldest public school in Yemen, so what will be the situation in the rest of the Republic’s schools, which witness an almost total absence of teachers and constantly where students are suffering of absolute educational vacuum.
On the other hand, teacher Moqbel Mohammed, an academic and educator, asserts that the total absence of physical education, sports and cultural activities among schools, especially in light of war, affects the exacerbation of violence and bullying in schools.
Moqbel says that "the absence of school sports and cultural activities, which aim to create an atmosphere of entertainment and fun, was certainly a source of chaos and aggression in leisure time, especially in light of the war that has psychological impacts on students, and therefore schools need to intensify such activities. However, sport teachers have no different circumstances than others teacher, and there are no possible ways to change this,” he says.
Poor School Management
Mr. Mohammed Al-Mushki (pseudonym name), an educational supervisor at a school in Sana’a, links the weakness of the school administration towards teachers and students and the absence of the moral value of the teacher and his role. He told "Khuyut", that this matter poses many difficulties and causes many manifestations of violence and reckless reactions by the group affected by the deterioration of education, namely the students.
Since the teachers’ salaries were cut off due to the war, education in public schools has become self-administered, carried out by few teachers who did not abandon their profession which led to poor educational performance inside schools.
Al-Mushki added: " The affected group remains the same group that produces reactions which are the student themselves. Consequently, due to the absence and weak performance of educational supervisors, the value of the teacher fades among the students, and the practice of any annoying behavior becomes a normal matter."
Professor and academic Ghazi al-Hilali, who is a classroom specialized teacher, said to "Khuyut" that the teacher classroom management, or "the classroom management", which is concerned first with the learner and provides him with an appropriate atmosphere for understanding, assimilation and concentration, has unfortunately become almost non-existent in many lessons, especially during the lessons of volunteer teachers; including high school graduates, who lack the most basic elements of this management, which creates an unprepared atmosphere for students, and there becomes disharmony and hostility between them. The reason here is due to the teacher's inefficiency in controlling the class.
Violence begets counter-violence
According to sociologists, all violent acts that accompanied the war in Yemeni society for nearly six years, including scenes of destruction and violence, are reflected on the students' behavior inside schools.
The assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Aden, Radhia Basmad, stated in her interview with "Khuyut", that the scenes of daily war in society, which are dominated by killing, destruction and epidemics which have been shown through various media means or on the Yemeni streets clashes created a similar reaction by the students, as minors and unable to cope with the consequences of the post-traumatic stress so they became violent in school, the place that brings them together. This happens in particular because of the deterioration and absence of the teaching staff.
In addition, Basmad points out that teachers’ failure to use different teaching methods that take into account the individual differences between students in comprehension creates a psychological complexity among the students towards the learning materials and towards the teacher given the teacher’s negative reaction to the student which is usually harsh criticism and describing pupils with terms such as "losers" or the use of physical punishment like beating, which increases tension and anxiety among the students, and the matter may be reflected in an aggressive manner directly towards the teacher.
Moreover, Adnan Yassin, a computer teacher, says that schoolchildren are living in a hypothetical conflict which has effects that may outweigh the impacts of real conflict on the ground which push them to commit acts of violence and bullying on a daily basis.
Yassin further explained to "Khuyut" that in light of the technological development and the ease of many students owning smart phones accompanied by the availability of electronic games dominated by scenes of violence and crushing opponents and the use of all means that enable the user to win by killing. He said one of the most popular violent games is "PUBGI", which has been banned in many countries.
Addicts of this game live in direct visual and audible moments to crush their opponents and that is why you find them interacting greatly during the game that lasts for several hours in one day, which makes them acquire very aggressive habitual behavior. The specialist confirmed.
Psychological factors
Psychological factors were also an element that contributes to the exacerbation of this phenomenon in light of the war, according to Nashwa Yasser, a specialist in educational psychology, to "Khuyut".
She added that the war has left poverty, loss and displacement for most of the families, and this has significant psychological consequences that affect students in the behavioral, social and emotional aspects which is critical to the spread of violence phenomenon among them.
When a student loses his father in the various conditions of war, he becomes in a state of unawareness of the outside world, according to Nashwa Yasser, especially if his mother was preoccupied with house needs, and thus he does not know the right behavior that he must follow, especially in light of a significantly deteriorating educational situation.
In general, the students experience psychological disorders, psychological instability and fear of the unknown, and this is reflected in their behavior, which is often aggressive acts either between peers or even with other age groups.
According to a recent Save the Children report, the past five years have had a devastating impact on the mental health of an entire generation of children. According to the report, children in Yemen show similar signs of trauma, as children in other conflict areas, such as aggression, bed-wetting, nightmares, hypervigilance, sadness, depression, anxiety and feelings of withdrawal.
A study of 912 children in the capital, Sana'a, revealed that 79% of children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Social Prospective
The social worker, Iftikar Al-Aghbari, confirms that the social worker alone is unable to treat an entire phenomenon, considering the role played by the social worker is to treat the behavior of cases that do not exceed 10% of the students, stressing that the social worker himself is living in a state of instability, psychologically, financially in light of salary interruption.
Further, the causes of this phenomenon have recently become variable, as most of these reasons come from outside the school system, although the school has recently become the first stage for practicing the phenomenon of violence among children.
At the conclusion of her testimonial, Al-Aghbari said that there is no way to reduce this phenomenon, which she described as "catastrophic" except by stopping the war and returning of all members of society to normal life. Besides, the necessity of joint cooperation between the family, school, society and the media, since all these parties may be the cause of this aggressive behavior, not the student himself, as a child, is only moved by everything that happens around him/her.
