National Council of Students: 3 out of 10 Romanian high school kids witness acts of violence, discrimination

The Romanian National Council of Students conducted a study on 20,821 students and teachers from pre-university educational institutes and drew an alarming reality.

28.2% of the students witnessed discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status among their peers, while 31.3% saw or participated in acts of violence – six years after ‘the Student Statute,’ a normative act that protects students’ rights under OMENCȘ no. 4742/10.08.2016, became mandatory for all schools in Romania.

“The main cause is, unfortunately, the ignorance of the content of the normative act by the members of the school community - students, parents, and teachers,” the study reads.

The study further reveals that over 60% of the perpetrators come from the teaching and non-teaching staff of schools. When asked whether they reported the authorities when something illegality occurred in their school, 42.1% of teachers said they had not, even though it was deemed necessary.

“Among those who have observed acts of discrimination, 52.7% state that the socio-economic situation, beliefs, and intellectual capacity are the reason for discrimination, while 34.9% claim that they have observed race, ethnicity, and age being the causes of discrimination,” the document reads.

“However, there is also a considerable percentage (12.4%) of the surveyed students who believe that sexual orientation is the reason for discrimination.”

Responding to the questionnaires’ results, the National Council of Students further demands the authorities take more important steps to creating a healthy educational system for everyone and combatting violence in the environment.

Residents in urban environments dominate the study's samples, with over 87% of participating students and 64% of teachers coming from those areas.

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