Classroom (illustration)
Classroom (illustration)David Cohen/Flash90

A new study conducted by the Matzmichim Center and Mashav Applied Research showed that most of Israel's teachers do not believe they received adequate training on how to manage violence in schools.

Quoting the study, Maariv noted that 47% of teachers believe that the level of verbal abuse in classrooms has risen in the past two years, while 30% believe they have seen a rise in the level of physical violence and 64% say that the amount of "shaming" has risen.

At the same time 67% of teachers say they did not receive any training, or say they received very little training, on how to deal with verbal, social and physical violence among children and youth. Just 6% say they feel that their academic training helps them manage the phenomenon of children's aggression on social media.

With regards to training for management of physical violence, 8% said their training had been effective, but just 3% said that their training helped them deal with children's aggression.

The study included 400 teachers from around Israel, who teach all ages of students and who have 0-10 years experience in the field, Maariv added.

The results show that there has not been a significant change in the last decade with regards to management of the problematic social climate in classroom. Forty-one percent of teachers said the issue of violence was not mentioned at all during their academic training, 4% said their training was not effective, and 22% said their training only helped them a little bit.

In addition, 79% of teachers turned to the school counselor in cases of problematic classroom atmosphere or aggression, but for 62% of them, the response they received was not enough.

A full 59% of teachers said that the additional courses offered by the Education Ministry are not relevant to the issue of social climate.