Education expert warns efforts to combat bullying aren’t even ‘making a dent’

An education expert says we’re “not making a dent in” Australia’s school bullying problem, and it’s time for a new approach.

Former principal and education expert Adam Voigt says “the punitive systems and the crackdowns, and even some of the awareness raising that we do, we have to say it’s not working”.

“We’re all aware that bullying is an issue in schools. We’re all aware that it’s not getting better,” he told Ross and Russel.

“It’s time to use some different approaches to raise our kids a little differently.”

Mr Voigt says it’s not only victims who suffer as a result of bullying.

“We have to remember too that it’s actually not just the kid who gets bullied. There are really similar life risks for the kids who do the bullying,” he said.

And social media has only exacerbated the problem.

“The impact of social media and technology means we gave kids who are unprepared to be able to handle that device the perfect tool to be able to do this destructive thing,” Mr Voigt said.

“We gave a pyromaniac a box of matches and hoped they’d deal with it responsibly and they just can’t.”

Press PLAY below to hear more about the problem and why the current approach isn’t working