According to a survey, psychological violence such as insults and forms of bullying among students have increased after the corona pandemic. More than half (56 percent) of teachers at general schools had this impression, as can be seen from the representative survey by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) presented in Cologne. 44 percent of the teachers surveyed also see an increase in physical violence.

According to the information, the number of violence-related school accidents rose by around 11,000 to 64,897 in 2023 compared to the previous year. However, it was still below the value before the pandemic (2019: 72,973), as the DGUV further announced. According to their statistics, the accident rate last year was 7.5 violence-related accidents per 1,000 insured people. This rate is therefore significantly higher than that of the pandemic years (2020: 4.6, 2021: 3.9, 2022: 6.4), but still below the accident rate before the pandemic (2019: 8.8). Serious injuries such as fractures as a result of violence-related accidents are rare, it said.

“We still have a long way to go”

The long-term trend of declining accident numbers due to violence remains unbroken, said DGUV Managing Director Stefan Hussy. “However, this should not be a reason to believe that everything is fine.” Because the accident statistics do not show a complete picture of violence in schools. “In particular, psychological violence and its consequences do not appear in it. In order to get an overall picture of the situation in general education schools after the pandemic, we asked those who have particular responsibility for the safety and health of children and young people in schools: teachers,” said Hussy. The results showed “that we still have a long way to go in terms of a non-violent school.”

The DGUV is the umbrella association of professional associations and accident insurance companies. Pupils are legally insured against accidents when attending school and on the way to school. According to the information, this insurance coverage generally also extends to violence-related accidents.