To fight increasing student delinquency and violence of recent years, an Education Ministry council submitted a report Tuesday urging schools to take a firm stance against serious crimes and to seek specialized assistance from other organizations.

The report, resulting from council discussions on student behavior, points out that schools can no longer single-handedly cope with the new trend of juvenile delinquency, which has both increased in frequency and changed in character.

Habitually disruptive students used to be responsible for most of the misconduct in schools. Recently, however, students who don't appear to have problems have unexpectedly committed more heinous wrongdoings.

Many of these students show only subtle warning signs, such as reporting physical illness or overreacting to small things, the report says. But "if such signs were noticed at an earlier stage and the students were given necessary care by specialists, then their sudden violent conduct could have been prevented," said Junko Kawamura, chief of the ministry's Lower Secondary School Division.

Poor communication among teachers, schools and other institutions hindered prevention of some juvenile crimes, the report says, recommending that schools establish internal communications systems to deal with the problem and seek help when needed from outside organizations.

According to the report, a school should appoint one staff member, such as a student adviser, to gather information on student behavior. When problems arise, the staff should discuss the issue in a conference headed by the school principal.

The school then should seek necessary cooperation from other organizations, such as educational counseling centers, juvenile guidance centers, health centers and police.

The report also recommends that records of problem students be shared with cooperating organizations. Schools should deal firmly with delinquency cases, the report stresses, and suspend students if necessary.

In response to the report, the ministry will consider creating a school counselor system. Beginning in 1995, the ministry placed psychologists as school counselors in some public schools on a trial basis.

About 1,000 elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide had such counselors in the 1997 academic year, which ends next Tuesday. The ministry also plans to increase the number of additional student advisers for the 1998 academic year from 38 to 150.