Bullying in Singapore schools

" I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?"

My 15 year old client recited the above verse from "Merchant of Venice" and described himself as Shylock in Nazi Germany. Of mixed Caucasian-Chinese parentage and from a single parent family, he is the only white boy in his neighbourhood school. He has to defend himself against rumours and being made fun of.

The Sunday Times on 20 August 17 reported that Singapore has the third highest rate of bullying globally in a study carried out by OECD. Six types of bullying were mentioned involving physical, verbal and relational/social bullying. In Singapore the top 3 prevalent forms of bullying are being made fun of, being left out on purpose and having nasty rumours spread about them.

The study suggested that bullying in Singapore can be more frequent in schools with poor disciplinary climate. Indeed that is the sense I get when I enquire of my client what actions the teachers usually take when a case of bullying is reported. From his account I imagine an environment where the teachers seem either to have lost control or adopt an indifferent attitude.

Way back when I was working as a part time school counsellor in a neighbourhood school I already noticed the struggle the school seemed to have in managing this problem. Looks like far from improving the situation may have worsen. To be ranked third in the world for bullying is really shocking.

My client has described to me the different cliques that exist in class along racial and national divisions. So there is the predominant local Chinese clique, the Malay clique, the China National clique all of which he finds difficult to penetrate. Does that mean all those wayang wayang (drama) about racial harmony has gone down the drain?

In the same report our students are also found to be suffering from high levels of anxiety. I was wondering whether this correlates to high incidence of bullying. However South Korean students who are also renowned to be high stressed are rank the lowest in rate of bullying. It then must be attributed to inadequacy in character development of our young. Are our schools too focused on academic achievement at the expense of moral education?

The Sunday Times interviewed a 25 year old lady who described being ostracised when she was in Sec 3. "I remembered not looking forward to recess because I didn't have any friends to sit with, and I would make up all kinds of excuses to avoid facing the loneliness and shame at school". "...it can be hard to truly gauge and understand how much a person is suffering inside."

My client has described to me that he feels he is "not alive" in school "dragging himself through classes". When I went home to google more on Shylock's speech in Merchant of Venice I found the following lines:

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

Yes, in fact my little Shylock was sharing with me about plotting revenge against the Nazis. Sigh....