Executive Yuan Invests 3.6 Billion to Boost Campus Security and Staffing

At its plenary meeting today, the Executive Yuan officially approved the three-year "Campus Safety Resilience 2000" program, allocating a total budget of NT$3.6 billion to be implemented by the Ministry of Education. The core objective of the initiative is to expand the number of junior high school campus security personnel nationwide from the current approximately 620 to 2,000, thereby enhancing the capacity for immediate intervention and handling of sudden internal conflicts, and subsequently reducing the incidence of student injuries and campus violence.

In recent years, due to academic pressure, adolescent emotional fluctuations, and the influence of social media, junior high schools have frequently reported cases of fighting, bullying, and even armed conflicts. Ministry of Education statistics show that the year-on-year growth rate of campus violence nationwide has exceeded 10% over the past three years, with junior high schools registering the highest incidence. A series of campus brawls in 2022 sparked widespread public concern, prompting parents and civil society groups to successively call on the government to strengthen campus safety protections, arguing that current staffing levels can no longer meet the demand for rapid response.

Currently, there are only 620 campus security personnel nationwide, most of whom concurrently shoulder administrative or counseling duties. Facing wide patrol areas and heavy workloads, they are frequently unable to arrive at the scene promptly when conflicts occur due to understaffing. The new program will primarily focus on full-time campus security personnel, completing recruitment and training in phases over the coming year, with plans to provide competitive salaries and benefits to attract professionals with backgrounds in social work or psychological counseling. Training courses will include crisis intervention, conflict mediation, psychological comfort, and legal fundamentals to ensure that every security personnel member can resolve conflicts professionally and immediately on-site.

This budget has been incorporated into the Ministry of Education's "Campus Safety and Protection" project and gained support from the majority of party caucuses after review by the Education and Culture Committee of the Legislative Yuan. During their briefings, the Premier and the Minister of Education emphasized that in addition to personnel expansion, the institutionalization of campus safety will be promoted concurrently, featuring refined incident reporting mechanisms and in-school crisis management manuals. While teacher organizations affirmed the direction of increasing personnel, they simultaneously called for enhanced conflict prevention training for teachers themselves and the improvement of internal school systems; meanwhile, parent associations expressed expectations that the new staffing arrangement would reduce the chances of children getting hurt at school while demanding that the government establish a transparent execution performance evaluation mechanism.

If implemented on schedule, the 2,000 campus security personnel will cover approximately 2,500 schools nationwide.