112 reports 98.5% police dispatched… An educational site where a festival has been reduced to a subject of security management
On a sunny spring day, a colorful poster drawn by hand was posted on the fence of an elementary school in Gyeonggi-do. “We apologize for any inconvenience caused to residents due to the noise from the sports event.” It captures the wonderful hearts of children who are considerate of their neighbors, but on the other hand, it is a sad self-portrait of our education field, which must be cautious about whether even festivals that occur only once a year will be branded as a ‘nuisance’.
On the 21st, New Reform Party floor leader Cheon Har-ram emphasized through his social networking service (SNS), “Children’s voices are not noise, and sports days are a legitimate educational activity that is not something to apologize for,” and announced that he would prepare the so-called ‘Children’s voices are not noise law.’ Representative Cheon mentioned the recent case of an elementary school in Gyeonggi-do and pointed out, “It is said that the posters were made voluntarily by students with the intention of being considerate of their neighbors, but sports days are essentially an essential educational activity that fosters social and cooperative skills in elementary school students, so it is not something to apologize for considering the opinions of those around you.”
In particular, he raised his voice in criticism of the current situation of preferring the so-called ‘Chopoom-ah’ (apartment housing an elementary school), an apartment complex near a school, but showing an exclusive attitude toward school noise, calling it “excessive egoism.”
In fact, the education field is already suffering from indiscriminate civil complaints and intervention by public power. According to data submitted by Rep. Cheon’s office from the National Police Agency, the police were dispatched to 345 (98.5%) of the 350 112 calls related to ‘school sports days’ last year. Children’s festivals have been reduced to a subject of security management.
This ‘enforcement of silence’ is leading to a decline in daily physical activities. According to data received by Rep. Cheon’s office from the Ministry of Education and each city and provincial office of education, as of March and April 2026, 312 out of 6,189 elementary schools nationwide are restricting sports activities such as soccer and baseball outside of school hours. In particular, more than 30% of schools in Busan are restricting activities, and in Seoul, the restriction rate is increasing every year from 14% in 2024 to 16% this year. The analysis is that the movement to minimize noise in consideration of residents’ complaints or to feel the responsibility issue in the event of an accident as a burden was influential. In addition, the fact that police were dispatched to 98.5% of 350 112 calls related to school sports days last year shows that the educational field has already been placed under the control of ‘security administration’.
The reason why schools tie up children’s feet is clear. Safety responsibility claims such as “Will you be responsible if I get hurt?” and parental complaints such as “Why do only certain students use the playground?” Current teachers are pouring out their screams, saying, “When an issue arises, we put pressure on them to ‘exercise’, and when an accident actually occurs, the individual teacher takes full responsibility.” The analysis is that in a situation where there is no protection system, teachers are instinctively choosing a ‘no-fuss’ approach to education.
In response to this, Minister of Education Choi Kyo-jin promised stern action in a question to the government on the 13th, saying, “Soccer should not be banned in even a single school.” Minister Choi mentioned the purpose of revising the curriculum to expand physical activity in lower grades and said, “We will inspect the field and bring back the lively shouts of children.”
The New Reform Party plans to revise the ‘Noise and Vibration Management Act’ to explicitly exclude children’s voices from noise regulations and prevent indiscriminate police dispatch by revising internal guidelines such as the ‘112 Report Processing Rules’. This is a benchmark of the legislative cases of Berlin, Germany and Japan, which excluded children’s sounds from noise classification in 2010.
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