The survey of about 87,000 students of 758 schools nationwide said 14.7 percent of those polled were considered obese, up 0.4 parentage point from a year earlier.
The figure compares with 11.2 percent in 2008 and 13.2 percent in 2009, according to the education ministry which conducted the survey.
Ministry officials said bad eating habits and a lack of sleeping and exercise were culprits of the obesity on rise among students.
The survey said that when asked how often they ate fast food, 56.9 percent of primary school children, 63.5 percent of middle school students and 67.7 percent of high schoolers polled said they had fast food at least once a week.
Did you eat vegetables every day? "Yes," replied 31 percent of primary school students, 26.9 percent of middle schoolers and 24.5 percent of high school students questioned.
About 44.7 percent of high schoolers surveyed said they slept six hours or less per day. The comparable figure stood at 11.9 percent for middle school students and 4 percent for elementary school children.
As to exercise, 51.9 percent of primary school children said they did strenuous exercise three days per week as recommended by health experts. The figure dropped to 31.4 percent for middle schoolers and 22 percent for high school students, the survey said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com