The government and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided Wednesday to push for tougher measures against school violence, including having such records taken into account in both the early and regular college admission processes, and kept until employment.
The PPP and the government held a policy consultation meeting at the National Assembly and discussed various measures to raise awareness on school bullying, the PPP's top policymaker Park Dae-chul said.
The measures include extending the length of time a record of school violence will be kept in a student's file, including up until a student finds a job, and taking such records into consideration in both the early and regular college admission processes, according to Park.
Park said the government and the PPP also discussed beefing up support for victims, strengthening teachers' authority and facilitating character-building education for students, including physical and arts education.
"We need to set a clear standard for which cases should be solved through education and which cases should be sternly dealt with, and execute the principles strongly to root out school violence," said Rep. Lee Tae-kyu, the PPP's executive secretary of the parliamentary education committee.
The PPP and the government plan to hold a task force meeting on the matter, presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, to devise a set of measures and push for related legislation, including a bill aimed at preventing school bullying.
School violence has gained wide attention after the presidential office canceled the appointment of a new national investigation chief, Chung Sun-sin, in February following revelations of his son's school bullying.
Source: Yonhap News Agency