An International Export from the Antibullying Programme KiVa School

​KiVa School is a research-based antibullying program that has been developed by the psychology subject and the Center for Learning Research of the University of Turku, Finland. The programme provides comprehensive schools ways to prevent systematic school bullying and handle bullying situations.

- The concept includes for example training for the teaching personnel, lesson materials, yearly follow-up inquiry with school-specific feedback and a computer game for the schoolchildren, Director of the programme, Professor Christina Salmivalli tells.

The programme has already shown its effectiveness in Finland and about 2500 schools have registered to use it. This is about 90 % of all comprehensive schools in the country.

Now, the aim is to make a significant export from the programme. The programme is tested the next term in Holland, Wales and Delaware, USA. Project Manager Juha Ollila, who is in charge of the international launching of the programme, is presenting the concept at the moment in South-America. Similar trips will also be made to Asia and a delegation from South-Korea will come to Turku.

- First of all, we are looking for international partners, who could buy the KiVa School license and sell it forward to the end users, Salmivalli sums up.

- The materials of the programme have already been translated into different languages. KiVa School needs to be modified according to the communication culture of each country so that it would work as well as possible. We will hire a senior researcher for this and we will also co-operate with local experts. At the moment, there is a group of teachers in Japan, who do this work, Salmivalli tells.

Henna Borisoff
Photo: Hanna Oksanen