Calls to stamp out bullying

BETWEEN 3 and 5 percent of school children are subject to bullying, said Joan Girbau, a spokesman for Catalonia's Education department yesterday. Girbau said that stamping out the practice is a huge challenge. He added that being a teacher nowadays provided separate sets of difficulties when faced with a huge array of nationalities in the classroom. More demands were placed on teachers to come up with an appropriate set of educational responses. The same tactics used 50 years ago to quash bullying are not applicable today, said Girbau.