Bullying and its Impact on Education: A Personal Experience

Running head: BULLYING
Bullying
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1BULLYING
There are certain things in the process of education that distracts students from their
motive. The act of bullying influence children and they suffer academically. Their test scores
gets declined, they acquire a sense of fear for going to school and ultimately it affects their
overall education. It is something that can be regularly seen reported in the media. However,
it is to note that bullying refers to the act of aggressive and unwanted behaviour among the
school going individuals that involves perceived or real power imbalance (Cornell and
Limber 2015). To this context, I would also like to share my experience of it. I too have
experienced it and I must say that it was very difficult for me being isolated from everyone.
When students get isolated they cannot think of anything else and gradually they become the
victims of depression. Bullying is an issue that could take place in any stage of education.
People think that this happens among the secondary and higher secondary school students or
in colleges but it is also to note that sometimes, kids are also bullied in their primary schools.
However, it is the most among the secondary school students because the elder students then
start making fun of their juniors. Being seniors they think themselves superior to their juniors.
It is very hard for the new students to adjust in such an environment.
There are huge amount of statistics in regards of bullying. Dr. Elizabeth Naseem, in
her countless number of articles about bullying, has examined where bullying prevails in the
everyday experience of school among the children. She has designed and implemented many
pupil led anti-bullying initiatives and has developed many mentoring programmes for the
pupils who frequently get engaged in bullying in order to help them in refraining from
bullying (Donegan 2012). According to her research, the most common form or bullying is
name calling and that the risk of being bullied gets decline with the increase in age. It has
also been found from the Anti-Bullying Alliance of 2016 that each one among four children
are reported as being bullied a lot or always. Bauman, Toomey and Walker (2013) in this
context have also said that the males are more likely to be victimised of bullying as compared

2BULLYING
to females. Also, the children who are eligible for the free school meals too are prone to be
the victims of such act.
My situation in the secondary school was quite tough. I had to adjust in the new
environment as I was new to the country. It is hard for the new comers to adjust in the school
and it was hard for me as well. Everyone go through this situation when they move into new
school or when they come from primary school to secondary school. It is difficult for most of
the people to go to other school as they are scared of whether or not they could make any
friends or if people will bully them. I moved to England in 2011 and I started my education
there from secondary school. In the beginning, because of language barrier, it was difficult
for me to communicate with my class mates. Therefore, I used to avoid talking to them
because I was scared if people will make fun of me for my different accent and language
problem. The fear of saying something that doesn’t make sense stopped me from interacting
with people. The bullying didn’t start in Year 7 because at that time I used to stay in a room
where all the foreigner students used to stay. However, it became more difficult in Year 8
because it was then when I started attending proper lessons and people start questing me
about my background, ethnicity and physical appearance. As per Law et al. (2012), “The best
response to bullying in not to respond”. I used to follow the same. I used to ignore people
because I didn’t know how to response as my English was not that good; but after each
passing day, it started getting worse. I never told my parents about it because I thought they
would get worried in vain. My parents cannot speak English either, so I did not want to
disturb them by telling about my situation which can make them worried and disturbed. So, I
kept it to myself and never told anyone; I told my English teacher who too used to belong
from by ethnicity and religion, but she did not take any action. She heard my complaint and
left that issue there itself by telling the culprits not to do the same from next time. I found it