Innocent victims

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Innocent victims

The leaking of test questions at foreign language high schools in Gyeonggi, including Gyeonggi Foreign Language High School, is a terrible crime carried out by greedy adults. But it seems that innocent students are going to be punished.
The focus now should be on saving those who were unfairly involved. Students who were admitted to the schools under dubious circumstances should have their admission nullified, and those who were unfairly rejected should be admitted.
The problem is that it is impossible to say exactly who behaved inappropriately. No one can say for sure whether students succeeded in gaining a place at the schools because they saw the test questions in advance, or whether they would have been been admitted on their own merit.
In addition, it is absurd to have students take responsibility for a crime perpetrated by a cram school when parents and students were not in collusion. The rule of law, and the purpose of education, is that no one should be unfairly harmed, even if we lose ten criminals in the process.
That’s why we should not nullify the admissions of the 47 students who studied at the cram school that acquired the test questions of Gimpo Foreign Language High School before the test date. And we definitely should not nullify the admissions of all admitted students or hold a retest. What happens if a student who was admitted to the school without seeing the leaked test questions fails the retest?
The best plan of action is to maintain the admissions of all students, and select 47 additional students in place of those who were unfairly rejected.
If there’s any better solution, we should take it into consideration. But no matter how the issue is solved, no person should be unfairly harmed. Instead, the cram school and the high school should be punished.
What do we tell children if the cram school maintains its good reputation and more students want to study there?
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