Mrs Mariecollete Kekong, Founder, School Anti-Bullying Force (A Non-Governmental Organisation)
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), School Anti-Bullying Force has trained over 250 counsellors across Lagos State’s six educational districts on eradicating bullying in schools.
The Founder of the NGO, Mrs Mariecollete Kekong, made this known at the first edition of the programme held on Wednesday at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Campus.
Kekong, a Certified Child Counsellor, said the aim of the training was to not only eradicate bullying in schools , but to also create a safe place where children could learn and strive in their education and life.
“We are here today because we are training school counsellors from the Lagos State six districts in partnership with the School Anti-Bullying Force.
“The programme is to add to the knowledge these counsellors have. It is to teach them to help children identify bullying, eradicate it, prevent it and stand up against it,” she said.
Kekong said that the NGO was also setting up anti-bullying centres and School Anti-Bullying Force Clubs in schools across the state.
The founder said that in the centres, counsellors would be taught more, such as knowing how to listen to the children.
She said: “This is because most times some of these counsellors only know the theoretical part of counselling.
“However, the part where the child needs the one-on-one, where the child will feel heard, the parts that need patience and all are skills that we are trying to equip these counsellors with.
“It’s to help school children feel safe to open up enough to come to the counsellors and report bullying, wherever it occurs.
“Also, to teach these counsellors how to be able to listen to these children and help them navigate bullying in schools.”
Kekong said that the NGO had treated over 100 cases of bullying in both public and private schools, adding that all the bullying cases that had been reported to it had been treated.
“We are able to treat those cases and we follow them through to the end. We ensure that we help rebuild the child’s confidence and we’ve also come up with an initiative called the ‘School Anti-Bullying Heroes’,” she said.
Kekong explained that these heroes are children who have stood up against bullying, saying further that the idea of the club was that even children who are bullies could become anti-bullying heroes.
She said that at the end of the year such children get a prize.
“When the children are in a house where their mum is either hitting their dad, shouting at their dad, the children pick up all these behaviours.
“You know, children don’t listen to what you tell them but they look at what you do. So the way you act with people around you, your spouse, your mates, your relatives, children learn all that from their parents or guardians.
“They learn these behaviours and do it to their peers, Sometimes, it might not even be the parents doing it to people around them, it might be parents even bullying their children directly.
“You know when you bully somebody, sometimes the bullied person might become a bully himself or herself,” she said.
The founder said that the NGO was considering ways to partner with the government to set up anti-bullying centres which children will see as safe places.
Kekong stressed that the centres are to be seen as a place where bullied children could go and report the bullying, places where they could go and feel safe.
“I want governments to partner with us, so that we can set up those anti-bullying centres across the state and nation.
She said that it was only using Lagos as a blueprint, adding that it intended to spread the initiative to other states and the whole nation.
Also speaking, Dr Rita Kienka from Lagos State Education District 3, said that the state government had zero tolerance for bullying, noting that the counsellors were trained to curb the trait as much as possible.
Kienka said that the training demonstrated situations in which children are being bullied and what could be done.
She said that in extreme cases, the state would take the bullied children out of such situations and put them in the appropriate places where they could receive therapy.
She said that the state had social welfare centres where the government sends bullied children to, adding that when these cases were extreme, the children are removed from among the students and taken to places of correction.
The district official urged the state government to bring in more counsellors to the schools.
On her part, Mrs Tolu Fapohunda, a seasoned educationist and counsellor, said they were to train the trainers, to talk to the counsellors so they could know how to handle bullying issues in the school.
Fapohunda said that bullying came from home or from the family, adding that as a family they should talk to the children and parents should watch what they do in front of their children.
She said that as teachers also, they were role models and should correct the children verbally in a way to make the child feel loved when they do the wrong thing and not by beating them.
Also, Coach Ope Bankole, a Personal Performance Coach, described bullying as an expression of someone’s internal insecurity transferred to another individual.
Bankole said that the government should be present in the lives of children from the beginning, because it was about education taking priority as children are the future leaders.