"Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education's 'Lowest School Violence for 9 Years' Sparks Controversy Over 'Trick' Criteria for Selecting Excellent Schools"

Unlike Last Year, Evaluation Criteria Shifted Mainly to Qualitative Assessment (On-site Survey)
Frontline Teachers Protest, "Awards Given for Blocking Reports Rather Than Solving Problems"

Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education building exterior.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Contrary to the appearance that the Daegu area is the safest from school violence, various expedients are being used in frontline schools to reduce the victim response rate.

This phenomenon seems to be because the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education is obsessed with the performance of the Ministry of Education's school violence evaluation, placing emphasis on 'results rather than process' as the standard for evaluating excellent schools.

According to the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education on the 3rd, on September 30th, each frontline school was notified of the '2021 School Violence Prevention Excellent School Award Plan.'

According to this plan, the evaluation method, which until last year was entirely based on quantitative evaluation (performance), was significantly changed to focus on qualitative evaluation (field investigation). Quantitative evaluation is stipulated to be conducted only for schools that wish to participate, so this year, 'qualitative evaluation' will determine whether a school is excellent.

The Office of Education explained that this is a new measure to reflect the efforts of schools in handling school violence cases, supporting the recovery of victim and perpetrator students, and excellent cases.

Accordingly, frontline schools, centered on the student affairs officers, are reportedly focusing on preliminary investigations of 'victim response students' and creating 'official' (performance) reports as a result.

A student affairs officer at a school in Daegu pointed out, "To effectively respond to school violence, it is necessary to encourage victim reports and approach problem-solving, but the Office of Education gives excellent awards if victim reports are blocked."

Another student affairs officer said, "Before the Office of Education's field survey, it has become common practice to conduct preliminary investigations to guide students mentioned as victims not to respond as victims of school violence."

In particular, unlike other metropolitan and provincial offices of education, the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education has awarded schools with zero school violence victim reports for 10 years until last year as priority excellent schools for school violence prevention, leading to criticism that this performance-oriented evaluation is a gimmick for the superintendent's achievements.

A representative of the Daegu Teachers' Union criticized, "Student affairs officers at frontline schools are already exhausted from school violence duties, but with the change to qualitative evaluation, they are now overwhelmed with preparing performance reports," adding, "Ultimately, this year's change in excellent school evaluation is another 'gimmick' in preparation for the nationwide school violence survey."

Meanwhile, the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education recorded the lowest victim response rate nationwide in the 2020 first school violence survey conducted by the Ministry of Education from September to October last year targeting elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide. The victim response rate was 0.4%, significantly lower than the national average of 0.9%.

The Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education's record of the lowest school violence victim response rate nationwide has continued for nine years since 2012. This period coincides strangely with the implementation of the 'priority award for schools with zero victim response rate' system by the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.