Students will receive empathy classes: this will be the new campaign to stop bullying in 2024

The Minister of Education of France, Gabriel Attal, announced this Sunday that classes to work on empathy in minors will be launched experimentally in January 2024 in a thousand schools in the country as a way to stop bullying. .

In an interview with RTL, Attal said that this measure is inspired by what Denmark does, which, according to the minister, has been the European country that has managed to substantially reduce cases of bullying.

“They have told me that the most effective thing is an empathy course, a time in which we learn to respect the differences of others, a culture of seeking common ground when there is a conflict, to manage anger,” he said.

Attal stated that this device, which was initially going to be applied to only 100 schools in January 2024, has decided to expand it to 1,000 and plans to make it mandatory in all establishments starting in September 2024.

The time of this empathy course will be between one or two hours per week and is dedicated to students from 3 years old (preschool) to 12 years old.

The empathy courses join a long list of measures proposed by the French Government last September, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro. Changing the class or school of the bullies, questionnaires to detect harassment or the hiring of specialized academic teams, are some of the other proposals in the French fight against Bullying in the classrooms.