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By Jun Ji-hye
One in 100 students in elementary, middle and high schools across the country experienced school violence in 2020. And while school violence in general nearly halved from the previous year, cyberbullying cases rose apparently because the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has reduced in-person interactions among students, according to an annual report by the Ministry of Education released Friday.
In a survey of students between the fourth grade at elementary school and high school juniors, 0.9 percent said they had experienced school violence, down 0.7 percentage points from 1.6 percent reported in 2019.
With regard to forms of school violence reported by the victims, verbal abuse appeared to be the most common at 33.6 percent, followed by group bullying and cyberbullying with 26 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. Multiple answers were allowed.
Group bullying and cyberbullying increased by 2.8 percentage points and 3.4 percentage points, respectively, from a year earlier, while other forms of school violence including verbal abuse, physical abuse and taking money decreased.
The ratio of those who committed school violence stood at 0.3 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.
The ministry said it is currently studying the reasons for the general drop in school violence, noting that it will devise plans to prevent school violence for 2021 based on the results of the study.