The measure will take effect from 2026, while school violence continues to spread. School prevention committees are often ineffective. A recent study showed that cases are reduced with a solidarity approach by reducing competition.
Seoul () – Starting in 2026, bullying by South Korean students will have a negative impact on the university admissions process. This is what the government of Seoul has decided today in an attempt to combat school violence: disciplinary files in serious cases will be kept twice as long, four years, which will also bring disadvantages when it comes to finding a job.
The decision was approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, after the presidential office in February annulled the appointment of Chung Sun-sin as the new head of the Police Investigation Bureau because his son had committed acts of bullying.
The Netflix series “The Glory” once again highlighted this phenomenon, which is widespread in South Korean schools. In the series, an elementary school teacher seeks revenge against former classmates of hers who bullied her when she was a child, often with very violent practices, such as burning her skin with a hair iron or scratching her chest with a safety pin. This is a true story that occurred in 2006 at a girls’ high school in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. The school had put the bullies on a checklist without further action, while the victim continued to endure the trauma many years later.
Despite the fact that South Korea introduced a regulation to prevent bullying in 2004, the phenomenon continues to spread: since 2013, the number of bullying cases has been increasing, from 11,749 to 31,130 in 2019. The number decreased during the pandemic, to rise again to exceed 15,000 cases in 2021. Around 50% of the complaints referred to physical violence, but verbal violence has also more than doubled in recent years.
Acts of bullying are dealt with internally by the school authorities, while the most serious cases are delegated to prevention committees, whose action, however, is not considered effective, because they are mostly made up of parents, teachers and civil servants who often lack legal knowledge. “Many of the professionals don’t usually attend committee meetings because it’s an unpaid position,” Park Keun-byeong, president of the Seoul School Teachers Union, told the Korea Times. “They are usually busy with their daily jobs. Not to mention there are very few of them in each committee.”
Chung Sun-sin himself had refused to acknowledge his son’s misconduct despite his school’s prevention committee accusing him and ordering his removal. Only after a Supreme Court ruling was he forced to admit that his son had committed acts of bullying.
The fact that the committees have no legal authority obliges the victims to take the matter to court. But in this case, the strategy of the perpetrators of the violence is to prolong the matter so that their acts are not recorded in the official school documents, while the victim and the aggressor usually continue to attend the same class. The Internet abounds with advertisements for lawyers willing to defend bullies in classrooms.
Recently, a study conducted in 48 classrooms in Seoul showed that it is possible for teachers to create an anti-bullying climate by using a caring approach towards others and reducing competition among students. Over an 18-week period, incidents of school violence decreased, and, according to the researchers, looking at the class as a whole is more effective than focusing on individual bully behavior.
