One in 20 Gwangju Elementary Students Reports Experiencing School Violence

City Office of Education Releases 2025 First School Violence Survey
Average Victimization Rate at 2.6%... Highest in Elementary Schools at 5.3%
Verbal Abuse Most Common at 38.7%, Concentrated in Classrooms and Hallways

The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education released the results of the "2025 First School Violence Survey" targeting elementary, middle, and high school students on September 16.

This survey was conducted among 125,651 students from 4th grade in elementary school to 3rd grade in high school, with 102,347 students responding, representing a response rate of 81.5%.

The results showed that an average of 2.6% of all students reported experiencing school violence. The victimization rates by school level were 5.3% for elementary schools, 2.0% for middle schools, and 0.6% for high schools.

By type of harm, verbal abuse was the most common at 38.7%, followed by group bullying (16.9%), physical violence (15.1%), and cyberbullying (7.2%).

The most frequent location for incidents was the classroom (30.0%), followed by hallways (16.6%), and playgrounds or gyms (7.6%). In terms of timing, incidents most often occurred during break time (31.7%), lunchtime (19.6%), and outside regular class hours (12.9%).

The city office of education announced plans to strengthen customized measures based on these findings, including student participation-based prevention education, relationship restoration programs, and the operation of prevention-focused schools. For the 2026 academic year, the office also stated that it would enhance schools' response capabilities through policy research and data-driven consulting support.

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