An investigation of learners' experiences of bullying at Layman Village Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

This study sought to investigate learners' experiences of bullying at Layman Village Primary

School. To understand the problem better, teachers' perceptions on the matter were also sought as learners often report such incidents to class teachers. The subject of this thesis inquiry were

63 grade four learners and 10 teachers of the above mentioned school.

Although this was a qualitative study, the structured questionnaires were used for both teachers and learners. When these failed to give sufficient data, semi-structured interviews were used. The taped interviews were transcribed and analysed, and data was categorised into three main

themes.

The results obtained showed that bullying is rife at Layman Village Primary School and that

teachers lack skills to address this problem. It was concluded that bullying is a serious problem

and should not be tackled haphazardly. Therefore, Layman Village Primary School needs to

develop a policy on bullying to guide teachers and to provide learners and parents with specific procedures to follow when bullying occurs.

My recommendations were that the Department of Education needs to draw a National policy on bullying that schools can use to develop their own programmes. It was felt that it would help if the national policy is linked to a monitoring programme to ensure that it is used appropriately.