National education: professions exposed to threats and insults

While physical violence against National Education staff (school teachers, secondary school teachers, counsellors and teaching assistants, head teachers) is relatively rare, each year on average 12% of them say they receive threats or insults while doing their job. This proportion is almost twice as high as all other professions. Teachers in secondary schools are most often threatened or insulted by pupils (three cases out of four) while teachers in pre-schools and primary schools are most often threatened by adults (seven cases out of ten). Younger staff are particularly at risk; however, women are not threatened or insulted more than their male colleagues. In the year following the incident, an average 46% of National Education employees who were threatened or insulted in the course of their work reported after-effects such as disturbed sleep or loss of self-confidence. One third of the victims believed the incident had disrupted their daily lives, particularly their professional life.