Gov't to expand in-school counseling as student suicides continue to plague country

As suicides among the youth continue to ail Korean society, the government will expand support for students, the Ministry of Education announced Tuesday.

A child writes a memo at an elementary school in Dongdaemun District, central Seoul, on Dec. 24. The message reads, "I want to work out, get up early, sleep early and eat healthy during the winter vacation." [NEWS1]

One hundred and ninety-three — that was the number of students who committed suicide this year from January to October. As suicides among the youth continue to ail Korean society, the government will expand support for students, the Ministry of Education announced Tuesday.

The goal is to reduce situations in which students have to seek help from outside institutions because there is either no counselor at their school or they lose access to counseling and follow-up care after transferring schools. The Education Ministry aims to place professional counseling personnel in all schools by 2030.

Some schools currently lack professional counselors, but the ministry aims to ensure that students can receive basic counseling support within their own schools regardless of where they are enrolled.

The measures come amid a continued rise in student suicides. There were 197 student suicide cases in 2021 and 221 in 2024, and 931 from January through October this year. Five of this year's deaths involved elementary school students.

Response measures will change when clear warning signs are identified. If a student is deemed to be at risk of self-harm or suicide, a team made up of psychiatrists and counseling specialists will visit the school directly to provide counseling and crisis intervention.

This approach shifts from a mere school referral to outside institutions to one in which specialists come into schools to provide direct support. Students who return to school after receiving treatment will also receive assistance to help them readjust to school life.

A statue of a person comforting another, meant to alert the public to suicide prevention, is seen on Mapo Bridge in Seoul on Sept. 25. [NEWS1]

Support for parents will also be expanded. Until now, only medical treatment costs at hospitals and clinics were covered, but counseling fees at outside professional institutions will also be included.

The aim is to ease the financial burden on families when school counseling alone is insufficient and students need hospital treatment or specialized counseling services.

To identify warning signs earlier, the ministry will run regular screening tests more frequently and expand the range of assessment tools that can be used as needed. It is also reviewing the introduction of self-check tools that allow students to assess their mental health without going through their schools.

Counseling methods will diversify as well. Students will be able to receive counseling through text messages, phone calls or social media without visiting school in person.

Around-the-clock counseling services will also be expanded to include parents, giving guardians a channel to seek help first when they are worried about their children.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, at the head of the table, presides over a meeting on suicide prevnetion at the National Center for Mental Health in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, on Dec. 30. [YONHAP]

The ministry also plans to address the long-standing issue of counseling disruptions. When students transfer schools or advance from middle school to high school, counseling records have often failed to carry over, forcing schools to reassess situations from scratch. Under the new system, key information will be shared to ensure continuity, with student consent as a prerequisite.

To systematically identify factors contributing to worsening student mental health, the ministry will introduce a nationwide survey. It will examine levels of anxiety and depression, warning signs of self-harm, usage of counseling and treatment services inside and outside schools, and regional response capacity.

In cases of student suicide, the ministry will replace the current teacher-written incident reports with psychological assessments involving experts. Specialists will analyze causes and background factors by reviewing family testimony and relevant records, and use the findings to develop measures to prevent recurrence. If you or someone you know is feeling emotionally distressed or struggling with thoughts of suicide, LifeLine Korea can be contacted at 1588-9191 or the Crisis Counseling Center at 1577-0199. The Seoul Global Center offers English-language counseling, contact 02-2075-4180 (+1) to arrange a session. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY LEE HOO-YEON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]