Funds for online anti-bullying tools

SCHOOLS Minister Peter Garrett will today announce $4 million in federal funding to help develop new online tools designed to tackle school bullying.

SCHOOLS Minister Peter Garrett will today announce $4 million in federal funding to help develop new online tools designed to tackle school bullying.

Mr Garrett will unveil the funding at a meeting of experts in Canberra today to discuss ways to stamp out bullying.

He said the new tools, to be developed by Education Services Australia, would have resources the whole school community could use and would be ready for the 2013 school year.

The tools will include a central, online information resource that helps parents deal with bullying, a training module for pre-service teachers and resources for student support staff.

Mr Garrett said statistics showed one in six students were bullied weekly and one in five had been a victim of cyber-bullying. He said today's national forum at parliament house would focus on how parents and teachers could contribute to addressing the issue of bullying.

"We can't ignore the damage that school bullying inflicts," Mr Garrett said.

"It's a serious problem for the immediate welfare of our children. And because bullying impacts on education, it impacts our nation's future."

Parents, students and teachers are being urged to share their ideas on the social issue even if they were unable to attend the Canberra forum.

"Send me an email, a tweet, or post on my Facebook page if you have an idea about what more we can do to help stop bullying," Mr Garrett said.

"We've already done a lot to help address bullying in schools. Now I want to hear from the community and from experts about what more we can do, what has been working in our schools and how we can help parents become more involved."