The government will conduct safety inspections of children's school buses from April 1 to May 15. This comes as the number of traffic accidents involving children's school buses has increased by 35% over the past five years, with the number of injured persons approximately doubling.
The Ministry of Education announced the '2025 Children's School Bus Joint Safety Inspection Plan' at the second ministerial meeting on social relations held at the Government Sejong Office on the 18th.
Since 2020, the government has been jointly conducting safety inspections of children's school buses twice a year in April and September, involving seven ministries. However, the number of traffic accidents involving children's school buses has not decreased. Starting with 17 cases in 2019, the figure dropped to 12 in 2020, and 10 in 2021, but rose to 21 in 2022 and reached 23 in 2023.
Children are also injured in these accidents every year. After a decreasing trend from 33 in 2019 to 20 in 2020 and 18 in 2021, the number increased to 44 in 2022 and 64 in 2023. There was also one fatality in 2022.
The Ministry of Education will oversee the safety inspections of children's school buses starting this year. Until now, the inspections had been conducted by the Korean National Police Agency. This change aims to prepare for an increasing utilization rate of school buses due to the expansion of after-school programs in kindergartens and daycare centers, as well as the implementation of extended care and elementary school social programs.
The government plans to conduct safety inspections on 3,000 to 4,500 children's school buses in April. This accounts for about 10% to 15% of the total children's school buses nationwide. The inspections will select buses from daycare centers and kindergartens that have been flagged for not addressing issues from the previous inspection, not having completed traffic safety education within two years, and not submitting safety operation records.
There are a total of 18 items on the inspection checklist conducted by the government. The plan will examine whether children's school vehicle registrations and driver safety training have been completed.
During the meeting, the government also discussed the implementation of a pilot project to improve the student health examination system. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare plan to allow students and parents to choose their health examination institutions, enabling them to receive health checks at their preferred locations. Currently, health checks for first-grade elementary, fourth-grade elementary, first-grade middle, and first-grade high school students are conducted at institutions designated by the head of each school. However, some schools face difficulties in selecting examination institutions, and students and parents have expressed concerns about inconvenience due to travel distance, highlighting the need for system improvements.
Meanwhile, the meeting also discussed the 'Elementary School Invention Education Promotion Plan' organized by the Korean Intellectual Property Office to foster students' creative problem-solving abilities. This initiative aims to effectively integrate and spread invention education into the elementary curriculum, in line with changes in the elementary education environment such as the implementation of the revised 2022 curriculum and the introduction of extended school programs.