Of recent, various initiatives to prevent school violence have been introduced across the nation. In the image, students partake in a campaign to curb school bullying initiated by the local police. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) – The Seoul Metropolitan Government will tap into the ‘design for good’ concept in its attempt to bring about social change, in particular curbing increasingly pervasive school bullying.
After research into the factors behind school bullying, the city decided to launch what it calls “The Preventive Design to Build Violence-free School”, taking advantage of societal and physical design concepts.
The city government is expected to make use of different methods to achieve its objective, including setting up special speakers inside schools that will play messages in ‘positive language’ — presumably to create a cordial atmosphere on school campuses.
Bright lights will be installed in some schools as well, as research has shown that they can help to create positive energy among students, and are known to boost emotions.
Pilot projects will be launched at Bae Myung Middle School in Songpa-gu and Janggok Elementary School in Seongbuk-gu, both located in Seoul.
Collecting feedback from both of these schools, the city government will introduce both a ‘universal preventive design for curbing school violence’ and a customized version to this effect.
The customized version in this respect has already been implemented in Seoul. Chungam Middle School in Eunpyeong-gu, for example, reportedly showed a high level of verbal abuse among its students in 2014. School administrators implemented a ‘fix’ in the form of a ‘design’ program to purify language among youth, which was met with good results.
By Jerry M. Kim (jerrykim@koreabizwire.com)
