The government is promoting a plan to allow a deliberation period for victim students and their parents before determining whether school violence has occurred among elementary school first and second graders starting next year. The intention is to encourage apologies and reconciliation among students before a school violence review takes place, as there are many minor issues among this age group compared to other grades.
The Ministry of Education announced on the 30th the '5th Basic Plan for Preventing and Addressing School Violence (2025-2029)' that includes these contents.
The government has been releasing such plans every five years since school violence was raised as a social issue in 2005.
The plan announced by the Ministry of Education on this day consists of five policy areas: ▲ Strengthening the prevention capabilities of the three educational subjects (students, teachers, parents) ▲ Creating a safe digital environment ▲ Expanding the educational functions of schools and enhancing expertise in handling concerns ▲ Strengthening integrated support tailored to crisis and victim/perpetrator students ▲ Establishing region-specific prevention and response foundations for school violence.
Starting next year, a recovery program will be piloted for lower-grade elementary students. The recovery program aims to improve relationships through communication between parties involved in school violence. The planning and development of the program will be completed this year.
Currently, when a school violence report is received, procedures such as fact-checking, student separation, investigation, and review are followed. In the future, if victim students and others agree after a report is received, the recovery program will be implemented. If they do not consent to participate in the program, the existing procedures will continue.
To this end, the government plans to increase related personnel to 5,000 by 2029. These will include specialists in counseling, reconciliation, mediation, and relationship recovery.
The reason the government promotes the operation of such programs is that there are quite a few cases of violence among lower grades that are deemed ambiguous to classify as bullying. As of 2023, there have been 1,174 cases of school violence reviews for elementary school first and second graders. Among these, 881 cases (75%) were judged to be school violence, while 293 cases (25%) were concluded not to be.
In addition, the Ministry of Education will expand the school violence prevention education program that was previously only targeted at students. The existing 'Uohalim' will be revamped into 'Uohalim+' to include teachers and parents. Pilot operations will begin from 2027 for fourth graders in elementary school, first graders in middle school, and first graders in high school.
Furthermore, the government encourages the involvement of corporations in preventing cyber violence. The plan is to engage platform companies in a government-wide consultative body that includes the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Justice, the Korea Communications Commission, and the Korean National Police Agency to develop technologies for blocking and detecting cyber violence and to check harmful information blocking.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho said, “We will create an environment where routine conflicts can be resolved educationally,” and added, “I hope that through this basic plan, the educational community will work together to create a safe school based on trust and respect.”