School violence committee cases near 30,000 last year as in-school resolutions fall below half

As school violence continues to rise, cases that cannot be resolved by school principals and must be referred to school violence deliberation committees are increasing every year, newly released data shows.

According to data obtained from the Ministry of Education and made public Wednesday by National Assembly Education Committee Chair Rep. Kim Hee-jung (Yeonje-gu, Busan), the total number of school violence cases reported nationwide rose from 44,444 in the 2021 school year to 57,981 in 2022 and 61,445 in 2023, before edging down to 58,502 in 2024 and 56,880 in 2025.

Of those, the number of cases referred to school violence deliberation committees jumped from 15,653 in the 2021 school year to 21,565 in 2022, 23,579 in 2023, 27,835 in 2024 and 29,405 in 2025 — an 88 percent surge over four years.

Meanwhile, the share of cases resolved directly by school principals fell steadily, from 64.8 percent in the 2021 school year to 62.8 percent in 2022, 61.6 percent in 2023 and 52.4 percent in 2024, before dropping below half for the first time to 48.3 percent in 2025.

Kim said the trend reflects a broader deterioration in schools' capacity to handle conflicts on their own. "As school violence has grown more serious, schools' ability to mediate disputes autonomously has weakened, and the system for handling school violence is drifting away from 'education' toward 'punishment and legal disputes,'" she said.

Kim also warned that the declining rate of in-school resolution deserves serious attention. "The increase in school violence itself is a problem, but we must take seriously the fact that the proportion resolved within schools is falling and that more severe cases requiring committee deliberation are on the rise," she said, urging the Ministry of Education and provincial and metropolitan education offices to "thoroughly review the on-site response system, from prevention through case handling."

Breaking down school violence by type, physical violence rose 72.3 percent from 8,520 cases in the 2021 school year to 14,681 in 2025, while verbal violence jumped 146.8 percent from 5,778 cases to 14,258 over the same period. Sexual violence increased 86.5 percent from 2,502 cases to 4,665, and cyberbullying climbed 65 percent from 3,020 cases to 4,984.

Particularly striking was the rise in group bullying, which surged 207.7 percent from 808 cases in the 2021 school year to 2,486 in 2025 — the highest growth rate among all categories. Coercion also more than doubled, rising 173.1 percent from 943 cases to 2,575 over the four-year period.

By region, Gyeonggi Province recorded the highest number of school violence cases in the 2025 school year at 15,083, followed by Incheon with 4,162, South Chungcheong Province with 3,302, South Gyeongsang Province with 3,169, North Gyeongsang Province with 2,552, Gwangju with 2,442 and North Chungcheong Province with 2,220.