THE NATURE AND PREVALENCE OF BULLYING IN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS OF NKAYI SOUTH CIRCUIT IN ZIMBABWE

THE NATURE AND PREVALENCE OF BULLYING IN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS OF NKAYI SOUTH CIRCUIT IN ZIMBABWE

ALFRED CHAMPION NCUBE

AUGUSTINE ZANO MURANDA

,THEMBINKOSI TSHABALALA

TICHAONA MAPOLISA

The aim of the present study was to investigate the nature and prevalence of bullying among
primary school pupils in Nkayi South Circuit in Matabeleland North Province in Western Zimbabwe.
The population comprised of all the 300 teachers in Nkayi South Circuit. Random sampling was
used to arrive at a sample of 30 teachers from ten schools. The study adopted the descriptive
survey design and the questionnaire was used for collecting data. The main findings of the study
revealed that the most common forms of bullying were physical (that is, fighting, punching, hitting),
verbal (that is, threatening, swearing, teasing) social (that is, deliberately leaving out of a game or
group, ignoring). The study also revealed that boys were the main contributors of bullying. The
findings also revealed that the bullying behaviours were influenced by home based factors, peers and school based factors. The study recommends that schools should encourage teachers to
engage all children in productive work all the time and also liaise with parents on best ways of
guiding the behaviour of pupils who exhibit characteristics of bullies

British Journal of Education, Society &
Behavioural Science

2015