Gwangju Office of Education Announces Results of the '2020 School Violence Survey'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 21st the results of the ‘2020 School Violence Survey’ conducted jointly by the nationwide city and provincial superintendents of education and entrusted to the Korea Educational Development Institute and the Korea Education and Research Information Service.

This survey was conducted from September 14 to October 23 of last year, targeting a total of 118,507 students from 4th grade in elementary school to 2nd grade in high school within the jurisdiction.

A total of 99,142 students, accounting for 83.7% of the surveyed students, participated, and the survey results will be disclosed by school on the School Information website.

According to the analysis, 896 students (0.9%) among the participants responded that they had experienced school violence, which is a 0.7% decrease compared to 1,895 students (1.6%) in the previous year.

By school level, the victim response rates were 1.9% for elementary school, 0.5% for middle school, and 0.1% for high school, showing an overall decrease in student victim response rates compared to the previous year.

The school violence victim response rate was the same as the national average at 0.9%.

By type, the proportion of victims was as follows: ‘verbal violence’ 35.2%, ‘group exclusion and bullying’ 26.2%, ‘cyberbullying’ 11.5%, ‘physical assault’ 7.0%, and ‘stalking’ 6.1%.

Compared to the previous year, the proportion of physical types of school violence such as physical assault and extortion decreased, while the proportion of emotional types such as verbal violence, group exclusion, and cyberbullying increased.

Regarding the type of perpetrators, 45.9% were classmates in the same class at school, and 29.4% were students in the same grade at school.

As for the location of the incidents, 32% occurred inside the classroom, 10.7% in the hallway, and 9.3% in cyberspace, in that order.

The times when incidents occurred were 35.4% during break time, 19.2% after school hours, and 10.6% during lunch time.

A representative from the Metropolitan Office of Education said, “Reflecting the opinions from the school field, starting from the first school violence survey this year, we plan to improve the system so that students can participate in the survey through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The Metropolitan Office of Education will continue to promote measures to prevent and eradicate school violence through collaboration with related organizations, aiming to draw social interest beyond the school field, and strengthen education on the proper use of the internet and smartphones to ensure that not a single child suffers from school violence.”