THE DEPARTMENT OF Education is provide another €60,000 for anti-bullying training for parents, in a move welcomed by teachers associations.

The funding last year provided 105 training course, in which over 3,000 parents took part.

“The training sessions are available nationwide and provide supports to parents to enable them to assist their children when issues of bullying arise,” Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said today, calling the work “invaluable”.

He said that parents should ‘not be left to tackling bullying alone’.

“Parents, families and the wider community have an important role to play in tackling all forms of bullying.”

“Key recommendations”

The National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) said the funding has been part of one its “key recommendations” to government.

A survey commissioned by the association earlier this year revealed a 33 per cent rise in the number of students who said they had been cyberbullied.

One in ten students have bullied another online.

All schools across the country have less than two weeks to adopt an anti-bullying policy.

Schools are not required to inform the department when they adopt a policy, but are subject to routine ‘whole school inspections’ that will now have “a stronger focus on the actions schools take to create a positive school culture and to prevent and tackle bullying”.

Read: Every school in Ireland must adopt an anti-bullying policy within the next two weeks >

More: One in ten students have cyberbullied another >