School Violence Victimization Rate Hits Record High at 2.9%... Physical Assault and Bullying Increase

Three out of every 100 elementary, middle, and high school students responded that they have experienced school violence.

The victim response rate was the highest since surveys began in 2013, with physical assault and group bullying showing particularly larger proportions compared to the previous year.

The Ministry of Education announced that the results of the "2026 1st School Violence Survey," conducted over a period of one month this year with 16 provincial and metropolitan offices of education, showed a victim response rate of 2.9%, up 0.4 percentage points from the first survey last year.

The victim response rate has been on a continuous upward trend, especially entering the 2020s.

The victim response rate fell from 1.6% in 2019 to 0.9% in 2020 due to the impact of remote classes following COVID-19, but then rose to 1.1% in 2021, 1.7% in 2022, 1.9% in 2023, and 2.1% in 2024.

This year's survey was conducted online targeting all 3.9 million enrolled students from the fourth grade of elementary school to the third grade of high school, recording a participation rate of 81.9%.

The survey covered experiences of witnessing, suffering, and inflicting school violence from the second semester of last year up to the response period in April and May of this year.

By school level, the victim response rates were 5.7% for elementary schools, 2.3% for middle schools, and 0.8% for high schools.

The elementary school victim response rate rose by 0.7 percentage points compared to 5.0% last year.

Looking at the types of victimization, verbal violence was the highest at 37.8%, followed by group bullying at 17.1% and physical assault at 15.7%.

Verbal violence accounted for the largest proportion across all school levels, and the higher the school level, the greater the proportions of verbal violence, group bullying, and cyberbullying.

Regarding the locations of school violence victimization, "inside school" accounted for 69.6%, while "outside school" accounted for 28.0%.

The Ministry of Education stated that it will push forward with school violence prevention and countermeasures based on the results of this survey and feedback gathered from the field.

(Photo provided by Ministry of Education, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.