More students in Seoul say they have experienced violence in school compared to a year ago.

According to an online survey of elementary, middle and high school students conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in April, some 1.2 percent replied that they were subjected to bullying and school violence, up by point-one percentage point from a similar poll a year earlier.

Middle and high school students who responded they were victimized by school violence fell by point-one percentage point from a year ago, while that of elementary school students rose by one percentage point.

The overall ratio has dropped from two percent in 2019 and one-point-eight percent in 2018, due to a drop in the number of days spent in the classroom amid social distancing protocols prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Verbal abuse took the lion’s share in terms of the form of school violence at over 41 percent, followed by group ostracizing at 15-point-five percent, physical violence at 12-point-three percent and cyber bullying at nine-point-nine percent.