S. Korean school violence rises as students return

SEOUL – Following the return to in-person classes, a government survey showed today that violence in schools has increased this year.

In the survey by the education ministry, 1.7% of students said they suffered violence in schools in 2022, up 0.6 percentage points from last year, when most schools shifted classes online due to Covid-19, according to Yonhap news agency.

The number is 0.1 percentage points higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.

About 3.21 million students, or 82.9% of the total, from fourth graders of elementary schools to high school seniors across the country, excluding North Jeolla Province, participated in the survey.

It reported the percentage of students experiencing violence was 3.8% for elementary schools, 0.9% for middle schools and 0.3% for high schools, up from 2.5%, 0.4% and 0.18%, respectively, in 2021.

By type of violence, 41.8% reported verbal abuse, followed by physical violence with 14.6%, ostracism with 13.3% and cyberbullying with 9.6%.

Ostracism and cyberbullying decreased from 14.5% and 9.8%, respectively, reported in 2021, while physical violence increased from 12.4% in 2021.

“With schools returning to normalcy, now is an important time to prevent violence in schools,” Yonhap reported Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon said.

“We will analyse the recent patterns and prepare a pan-governmental implementation plan to prevent school violence by February next year,” he added. – Bernama, September 6, 2022