A one-day workshop on mastering life skills to combat school bullying was conducted by the faculty of Human Development and Family Studies wing of the Department of Studies in Food Sciences and Nutrition, University of Mysore, here on Thursday.
The workshop was titled Allyship Avengers: Mastering Life Skills to Combat School Bullying. Explaining the objectives and the background of the workshop, the organisers in a release that incidences of school bullying present a pressing concern for schools worldwide with a negative impact on all domains of development. The middle schools were more prone to this issue as students were transitioning from primary school to high school. Hence the workshop was specifically designed for students from 6th to 8th grade, the release said.
The interactive session is expected to have equipped the participants with essential skills and knowledge to effectively recognize, prevent and respond to school bullying incidents around them as individuals and students, the organisers added.
Some of the other objectives of the workshop were to aid students in defining and recognising bullying, to help students cultivate allyship and understand its role in fostering a supportive and inclusive school culture.
It was inaugurated by Ashok S. Alur, Vice Chancellor, Kodagu University, Kodagu who said that this was an interesting initiative by the department which will help participants to prepare themselves for future.
He said the workshop will help the participants in defining and identifying different ways of bullying as also in developing skills and strategies to overcome and combat it. He said the workshop will help students to develop confidence in addressing such situation.
The decision-making process involved in responding to such bullying will also go a long way in preparing the students to cope with challenges in life, said Prof. Alur.
Asna Urooj, professor and chairperson, DOS in Food Science and Nutrition, and M. Kamalam, convenor and professor in Human Development and Family Studies, were among those present.
