Gov’t measures to reduce violence by kids outlined
Published: 13 Jan. 2010, 20:47
Various government ministries and agencies led by the Education Ministry are set to launch joint efforts to protect under-aged students from violence in and out of schools this year, which will include enabling parents to locate their children via mobile phones.
In a five-year plan to prevent student-related violence unveiled yesterday, Korea’s Education, Justice, Gender, Health and Public Administration Ministries as well as Korea Communications Commission, Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and National Police Agency said they will run call centers for school violence reports across some 180 local education offices nationwide. Professional counselors will man hot lines to take reports and provide counseling to students, parents and school workers.
The officials also intend to hike the portion of elementary, middle and high schools with closed-circuit TVs across the nation to 70 percent by the end of the year and to 90 percent next year, compared with 58.9 percent last year.
The announcement came after the Education Ministry ran an initial plan to crack down on school violence from 2005 until present. Despite the efforts in the past five years, school violence in various forms is still persistent, said the ministry.
“Recently, the age of students getting involved in school violence has lowered and new types of violence have emerged,” said an Education Ministry spokesman.
A student locator service was operated at 40 elementary schools across the nation as part of the pilot program last year. The ministry intends to increase the figure to 550 this year.
City and provincial education offices will finish designating schools to become beneficiaries of the service and launch it beginning in March. Those schools with higher potential for violence and with a relatively large portion of students from underprivileged families will be given priority. The ministry wants to see all elementary schools in the country run the service in 2012.
For the service, respective schools must install at the gate a device that detects individual students electronically. When students pass by the device, it automatically sends messages to their parents’ mobile phones.
Late last year, violence among the under-aged emerged as a hot button issue after a video clip showing several teenagers physically harassing a younger child was circulated on the Web. Police caught the perpetrators. When asked why they had done it, they answered: for fun.
To prevent students from developing such a mind-set, the Education Ministry plans to offer lectures and training sessions on school violence.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
In a five-year plan to prevent student-related violence unveiled yesterday, Korea’s Education, Justice, Gender, Health and Public Administration Ministries as well as Korea Communications Commission, Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and National Police Agency said they will run call centers for school violence reports across some 180 local education offices nationwide. Professional counselors will man hot lines to take reports and provide counseling to students, parents and school workers.
The officials also intend to hike the portion of elementary, middle and high schools with closed-circuit TVs across the nation to 70 percent by the end of the year and to 90 percent next year, compared with 58.9 percent last year.
The announcement came after the Education Ministry ran an initial plan to crack down on school violence from 2005 until present. Despite the efforts in the past five years, school violence in various forms is still persistent, said the ministry.
“Recently, the age of students getting involved in school violence has lowered and new types of violence have emerged,” said an Education Ministry spokesman.
A student locator service was operated at 40 elementary schools across the nation as part of the pilot program last year. The ministry intends to increase the figure to 550 this year.
City and provincial education offices will finish designating schools to become beneficiaries of the service and launch it beginning in March. Those schools with higher potential for violence and with a relatively large portion of students from underprivileged families will be given priority. The ministry wants to see all elementary schools in the country run the service in 2012.
For the service, respective schools must install at the gate a device that detects individual students electronically. When students pass by the device, it automatically sends messages to their parents’ mobile phones.
Late last year, violence among the under-aged emerged as a hot button issue after a video clip showing several teenagers physically harassing a younger child was circulated on the Web. Police caught the perpetrators. When asked why they had done it, they answered: for fun.
To prevent students from developing such a mind-set, the Education Ministry plans to offer lectures and training sessions on school violence.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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