Bullying as the main driver of low performance in schools: Evidence from Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa

Research from developed countries has associated bullying with several negative outcomes, including school avoidance, poor attendance, and reduced academic achievement. However, little is known about the relationship between bullying and academic achievement in developing countries. Data from three African countries, Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa, were analyzed to investigate the effects of bullying on academic achievement. The data included 36,602 participants aged 12 to 16, who were assessed in reading, mathematics, and science skills and knowledge. The results showed that bullying is a significant problem in all three countries, with over 50% of students reporting that they experienced bullying at school. Bullying was found to be one of the root causes of low academic performance, and was more influential than other variables commonly associated with low achievement. The study used a combination of different statistical techniques to move beyond a correlational study and shed light on the causal relationships between bullying, student, teacher, school, and household characteristics, and performance in school. The analysis revealed that students who were bullied had lower academic achievement in reading, mathematics, and science compared to their non-bullied peers. The study also found that the negative effects of bullying on academic achievement were more pronounced in countries with lower income levels. The results of this study suggest that school violence, particularly bullying, must become a priority for international development and country-level efforts in education. The study used data from two international assessments, the Trends in Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS), conducted in 2011 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in 48 countries. The assessments included measures of students' reading, math, and science skills and knowledge, as well as school environment and demographic measures. The participants in the study were students in the fourth and eighth grade in each country, with a total of 33,790 students included in the analysis. The students were randomly chosen, and the average age of fourth-grade students was approximately 12 years, while the average age of eighth-grade students was approximately 16 years. Schools with students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and in rural as well as urban locations were included in the study. The study used different estimation and matching techniques to compare academic achievement between bullied and non-bullied students, and an analysis of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) to support an interpretation of the causal relationship between being bullied and low achievement. The results of this study have important implications for education policy and practice in developing countries, and highlight the need for targeted interventions to address the problem of bullying in schools.