PANJIM: A majority of students claim to have been harassed or bullied by their peers at least once in their school days till class VIII. A new State survey has found that more than half the students were insulted, nearly two-fifths treated badly and some were even victims of theft.
The State Learning Achievement Survey 2014 pointed out that such negative ambience impacted their studies, particularly in English, mathematics, science and social science.
The figures indicate that the rate of ‘insulted by others’ was more at 53.4 percent in South Goa than in North Goa where it recorded 42.7 percent. An overall percentage for the State stood at 47.9 in this category.
The sample study, conducted on nearly 3,000 students of class VIII, was divided into six categories such as ‘something was stolen’; ‘hit/hurt by others’; ‘forced to do things against wish’; ‘insulted by others’; and ‘left out of activities by other students’.
The data, released by Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) also shows that nearly two-fifth of students were either hit or hurt by their contemporaries, which constituted 39.3 percent in the north and was marginally higher at 40.9 percent in the south. Similarly, the other three unpleasant incidents happened with a substantial percentage in both the districts.
This has resulted in the poor performance of students in all the four subjects. “Thefts of anything belonging to a student had negative impact on their performance in mathematics and students hurt/hit by fellow students negatively affected their performance in mathematics and social science. Students made to do something against their wish and being left out of activities by other class or schoolmates negatively influenced performance in all four subjects,” the study says giving an overall view of the state.
The 600-odd page report also highlights that students’ absence from school for over 15 days has impaired performance in mathematics and science, while month-long absenteeism severely affected science studies.
“…remaining absent from school for less than five days and 6-15 days did not affect the performance of students of the state of Goa in any of the subjects. But remaining absent for 16-30 days negatively affected the performance of students in mathematics and science, and absence for more than 30 days has had negative performance in science subjects only,” the report states.
