The government said Tuesday it will provide legal services to school teachers caught in disputes with their students or parents as they face increasing pressure to tackle violence at schools and other problematic issues.

At a weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, the government said it will require each municipal and provincial education office to hire a full-time lawyer and form a legal support group.

These support groups are expected to give legal advice to all teachers who seek it.

In a related move, the government said it discussed hiring 500 more professional counselors at public schools to help both victims and perpetrators of school violence. School bullying has become a major issue in recent months following a series of suicide cases by young student victims.

More than 12 percent of children in grades four through 12 said they have experienced violence, including verbal threats, beatings and robbing, by their peers in the past year, according to the interim results of a recent government survey.

The survey, the first of its kind, was answered by about a quarter of the country’s 5.58 million children in grades four through 12. 

(Yonhap News)