THE EFFECT OF BULLYING ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SELECTED SECONDARY
SCHOOLS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In schools, bullying occurs in all areas. It can occur in nearly any part in or around the school building, thought it more on
occurs in recess, hallways, bathrooms, on school buses and waiting for buses, classes that require group work or are
school activities. Bullying in school sometimes consist of a group of students taking advantage of or isolating one student in particular and gaining the loyalty of bystanders, who, in some cases want to avoid becoming the next victim. School bullying is a widespread issue that affects secondary school students in three essential parts of their lives; psychologically, educationally and professionally. Bullying is a sort of aggressive behaviour against others such as, verbal by calling nasty names, physical by kicking, pushing or tripping up and social by everyone stopped talking to you. Academic achievement is the first aspect which influences bullying at school. therefore, bullied children live within fear, self-blame, feel weak and it affects their personality traits and self-confidence, so this situation makes them unable to study well and they might hate going to school. Furthermore, they will lose their opportunities to participate with others or enjoy school activities. Hence, they will gain less academic performance and low educational attainment. There is a strong relationship between bullying and school quality such as class size, lack of library, sports facilities. Both bullies and victims feel more negative about school, and persistent bullying may lead to stress and depression. Bullying can lead to anxiety, low self-esteem, hopelessness and isolation. Children miss lessons or are scared to attend school. They lose concentration when they do attend. Some of the effects last long are the bullying, until they are adults. One adverse effect of bullying is that it also leads to suicide. While suicide is rare in bullied children, the other effects of bullying are also devastating and last
well beyond the time when the child is actually bullied. Many schools have a zero tolerance policy towards bullying, but sometimes have difficulty identifying the victims and the abusers because children are afraid to come forward. Bullying causes long-term problems such as depression and anxiety. In his essay