Bullying at High Schools: Scenario of Dhaka City

Incidence of bullying among school children is very common and well recognized. The present study explored the existing scenario of bullying in high schools in Dhaka city. Phenomenological approach was used to gather and analyze focus group discussion data from 60 parents, teachers and students from both English and Bangla medium school, selected through convenient sampling. The qualitative analysis using software NVivo, revealed seven forms of bullying such as verbal, emotional, exclusion, physical, sexual, cyber, and race, to be prevalent among high school children. Though bullying found to affect large numbers of high school children in both Bangla and English medium, according to teachers' report, physical and emotional bullying were more common in Bangla medium, while frequency of verbal, sexual, and cyberbullying were high in English medium. Teachers also reported that student of grade 9 and 10 experienced more sexual and cyberbullying than other classes. It was evident that bullying took place at anywhere and everywhere in the school premises, like in classroom, playground, bathroom, around the campus, or even in school bus. Common causes, probable consequences and prevention strategies on bullying were also identified. Seeking attention was found to be an important factor in bully behavior. Opinion of parents, teachers and students about experiences and probable prevention plan were considered to work out a helpful intervention program for bullying in the future.