Elementary, middle and high school students who received counselling after experiencing school violence increased nearly 35 percent over the past three years.

The Korea Youth Counselling and Welfare Institute affiliated with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Wednesday published the related data gathered from some 240 youth counselling centers nationwide between 2020 and 2022, when the number of online classes spiked due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the data, the total number of students who received counselling for school violence rose by 34-point-nine percent from one-thousand-235 in 2020 to one-thousand-667 in 2022.

The comparable figure of elementary school students nearly doubled from 217 to 425 during the period, while the figure of middle school students increased over 40 percent to 786. 

In a separate survey on 86 counselors who provided counselling on school violence, 58 percent said the students came for counselling for bullying, while 54-point-seven percent said the students suffered from verbal abuse. About 30 percent named cyberbullying.