Students look at a signboard about a help call line for school violence at Youngwon Middle School, central Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Cho Young-ho

By Kim Rahn

Parents of schoolchildren as well as educators are calling into question the reliability of the government’s survey on school violence as only a quarter of students took part in the poll. They are also skeptical of the effectiveness of making public the survey result, as there are suspicions of the fabrication of reports.

Critics slammed the government for wasting 2.5 billion won in taxpayers’ money in conducting the survey, saying that the disclosure of the result will not help root out school violence but only brand some schools as a “haven for student gangs.”

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology posted the survey result on its website Friday as did each elementary, middle and high school.

The research was designed to reveal the reality of violence at schools and information on school gangs in order to eliminate violence, after a middle school pupil killed himself in Daegu in December following classmates’ bullying.

Some 5.59 million students at about 11,000 schools were subject to the survey between January and February. They were asked if they experienced or observed bullying or violence in the classroom, and if they had gang members attending the same school. Teachers sent the questionnaire to students’ homes, and students were asked to mail the answers to the Korea Education Development Institute.

It was done during winter vacation, but was not compulsory so not many students actually took part — about 1.36 million, or some 24 percent of the total number did so. Among the 11,000 schools nationwide, not a single student at 143 schools returned the answers, while less than 10 percent of students at 1,906 schools responded.

Such low participation comes from students and teachers’ negligence on the issue or sometimes due to the fault of the latter. At many schools where no students answered, teachers didn’t send the questionnaire to the students’ homes, while some teachers collected the answers from students but didn’t send them to the institute.

On the other hand, more students took part in the survey than the total enrolled at 204 schools — an indication of fabrication.

The ministry ordered regional education offices to investigate the schools recording less than 10 percent or over 100 percent student participation. It plans disciplinary action against schools where teachers didn’t send the questionnaire to students’ homes.


Effectiveness questioned

Another issue is whether conducting and making public such a survey will help reduce school violence.

The Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations said it agreed that school violence should not be hidden, but raised questions about the objectivity of the survey.

“Only a quarter of students answered, with none participating at some schools, so the objectivity of the research is doubted. Also, bullies or gangs at each school are made public without objectivity. Schools with a high number of cases of violence may be labeled problem schools and parents may shun sending their children to them,” the federation said in a statement.

Another teachers’ group, Good Teachers Movement, said, “We worry the government, after conducting the survey and disclosing it on its website, may pass the responsibility for school violence on to teachers and schools which had a large number of violence cases, without finding more fundamental solutions.”

A researcher at the National Youth Policy Institute said, “To avoid being branded violent schools, many may focus on short-term measures such as transferring bullies to other institutions or expelling them, so that they can say they settled the gang issue in a short time.”

The ministry plans to conduct the survey regularly, twice per year through the Internet. “We expect more students to participate in the online survey, thus raising the objectivity and credibility,” an official said.