Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco and Brigitte Macron today launched a campaign against bullying and cyberbullying, under the auspices of the National Observatory for the Rights of the Child (ONDE), chaired by the Princess.
Entitled ‘Let’s Act Together’, the initiative launched by Princess Lalla Meryem of Morocco and Ms. Brigitte Macron, demonstrates Morocco’s commitment to combating bullying.
The campaign includes an awareness-raising initiative with the broadcast of a video on bullying in 3,770 secondary schools.
It also includes the design of an application to prevent and combat bullying in schools, as well as a three-year training programme in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education of Morocco.
During the event, Princess Lalla Meryem and Brigitte Macron attended a presentation of the “iTyhad” application, developed by four engineering students, a child and a child psychiatrist during the Hackathon el-Toufoula, an initiative bringing together 15 universities.
They also watched a video on raising awareness of bullying, broadcast simultaneously in 3,300 multimedia rooms of the Ministry of Education, and participated in a workshop with 14 middle school students. They then discovered the Children’s Parliament, created in 1999 by King Mohammed VI, which allows young people to express themselves on issues related to their rights.
ONDE recalled the princess’s commitment to implementing the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, in force for 30 years with the creation of ONDE in 1994.
The event was punctuated by the presentation of the Lalla Meryem Prize to the four students of the International University of Rabat for their contribution to the fight against bullying through the iTyhad application. Moroccan institutions, including the Ministry of National Education, reaffirmed their determination to combat bullying.
In March, the ministry launched a training programme to help teachers fight cyberbullying, reaching approximately 700 secondary schools in several phases.
This programme is part of a broader plan to address the challenges of bullying in 2,191 secondary schools. A total of 6,579 supervisors will benefit from this training, including teachers and guidance counselors.
A survey conducted by the NGO “Sourire de Reda” in 2022 revealed that 51.9 per cent of respondents had been victims of physical or verbal harassment in their high schools, an alarming result based on 2,863 participants between 2012 and 2021. About 62.6 per cent of respondents reported having suffered humiliation and harassment.
Princess Lalla Meryem and Brigitte Macron also attended presentations on various awareness-raising initiatives, including the application aimed at preventing harassment and cyberbullying.
RT/ac/Sf/fss/gik/APA