More than 1,500 primary and middle school pupils on Friday boycotted classes in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje after a boy accused of bullying returned to their school, local media reported.
The third grader (aged eight to nine) has been accused of repeated bullying over a number of years in a rare case that has shocked the public and brought the country’s education system under scrutiny.
According to parents of pupils at the school, the boy’s bullying began two years ago when aged just six or seven and included verbal and physical harassment, beating, vandalism of school equipment, sexual harassment and even threats with a knife.
The boy’s father had tried to enroll his son in a different school at the beginning of the week but the educational establishment cancelled that move after children there staged a boycott in protest.
On Wednesday, he returned to his previous school, only for his classmates to walk out.
That was followed by a boycott staged by all pupils at the primary and middle school, who are aged from six to 14, on Thursday and Friday.
The parents’ council at the school has sent a demand to the institution to “urgently engage all state mechanisms for assessing the emotional and psychological state of the pupil”.
While not demanding that the child be kicked out of the school, they want the other children to be protected.
The Ministry of Education has formed a commission to try to find a solution to the problem.
Education Minister Vesna Janevska said that she understands parents’ fears but that “here we are also talking about a kid”.
“Primarily, the reasons why the child’s behaviour is the way it is should be examined, and in order to do so and to be able to further act to correct the child’s behaviour, multiple factors from the state system should be included,” she added.
The country’s Centre for Social Affairs has also come under fire, accused of failing to act on the case.
“The child has the right to an education, but also to a peaceful, decent life,” Janevska said. “He is a child and cannot solve it on his own.”
