8 thousand teachers were beaten and assaulted by their pupils in Algeria

The highest rates of violence against teachers were recorded during the recent years in Algeria, as more than 8000 teachers and administrative assistants were subjected to attacks by students.

• The phenomenon of violence against teachers reaches a dangerous phase, as studies were conducted on the subject to know the reasons and motives which lead students to repeated attacks on their teachers, especially as they went beyond the stage of isolated and individual cases and become a dangerous phenomenon.
• A study by the Ministry of Education on the phenomenon over seven years of the school year 2001 to 2007 shows that the psychological and moral violence against teachers increased in the middle schools reaching 60%.
• The cases of violence against teachers and the schools’ administrations by the pupils reached 8564 cases during the season 2006-2007, including 8000 cases of verbal assault and threatening, and 600 cases of physical assault and theft.
• The study by Dr. Ahmed Houti, professor of sociology at the University of Algiers in 2007 on the phenomenon of school violence involving 21 secondary school in Algiers, 1026 pupils, 365 teachers and 48 educational consultant, shows that 80% of the pupils practiced different ways of violence against their teachers, and 36% of the received warnings that were sent to their parents.
• The study stated that the most important causes of violence by pupils is the influence of community outside the school, as 49.5% of them are violent because of the scenes of crime, theft and murder in their community, 36% of them live a family disintegration, 13.5% were influenced by the environment of violence within their educational institutions, over 52% of them were subjected to theft, and 72% watch violence movies without control.
• The same study also pointed to the role of the teacher in developing violence among pupils as most of them ignore the rules of proper education and the pupils’ social conditions, showing that 53% of teachers used violence against their pupils, 51% of pupils were verbally abused and insulted by their teachers and 27% of them were expelled from schools.