Education Ministry gets serious about enforcing Yoon's call for CSAT review

Social Affairs

Published: 16 Jun. 2023, 18:22

Education Ministry gets serious about enforcing Yoon's call for CSAT review

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho speaks during a press briefing at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Thursday after meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol to discuss education reform, including the the state-run college entrance exam. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Ministry of Education said Friday it plans to conduct an audit to see if the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), which administers the state-run college entrance exam, has properly followed the president's instructions to review the scope of material covered in the test.

It also abruptly replaced a high-ranking Education Ministry official who had headed the bureau in charge of college admissions affairs since January.

This comes after President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered Education Minister Lee Ju-ho to exclude material that is "not covered in public education" from the annual state-administered College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) on Thursday.

The instructions were in response to criticism that the CSAT includes unnecessarily difficult "killer questions" that students cannot solve without resorting to private lessons, such as hagwon (cram schools).

Lee said in a press briefing at the Yongsan presidential office Thursday afternoon that he had briefed Yoon on education reform, which comes as a part of three major reforms pushed by the Yoon administration.

The minister said that Yoon had told him to "strongly implement measures to reduce private education expenses," which have reached an all-time high last year.

"In particular, questions in areas not covered in the public education curriculum, which are of great interest to examinees, should be excluded from the CSAT," Yoon was quoted as telling Lee.

According to data released by the Education Ministry and Statistics Korea in March, total expenditures for elementary, middle and high schools for private education increased by 10.8 percent on-year in 2022 to 26 trillion won ($20 billion), up from 23.4 trillion won in 2021.

Lee likewise raised suspicions of a "cartel between education authorities and the private education sector."

However, the president's college exam reform instructions left some confusion in education circles on what the scope of CSAT reforms entailed for students, with the next exam set to take place in just five months.

The college-determining CSATs, referred to as suneung, are usually administered nationwide on the third Thursday of November, and university hopefuls spend much of their high school years preparing for this grueling hours-long exam.

On Friday, the presidential office clarified that the CSAT wasn't becoming "easier," contrary to a newspaper report headline which read, "Making CSATs easier."

Yoon was not referring to an "easy CSAT" or a "hard CSAT," senior presidential secretary for press affairs Kim Eun-hye said in a statement, but one that excludes areas not covered in public education.

She quoted the president as saying that "a fair assessment ability is the essence of all exams, so while keeping this ability, exclude areas not covered by the public education curriculum from the CSATs."

Likewise, Vice Education Minister Jang Sang-yoo told reporters in a briefing Friday afternoon that Yoon's remarks were not about "difficulty," but about a "fair CSAT," and said that the KICE should properly follow through with the orders.

He said that the Education Ministry and Prime Minister's Office is planning a joint audit of the KICE "to see if the instructions have been properly implemented."

In turn, the ministry on Friday replaced Lee Yun-hong, director of the Human Capital Policy Planning Bureau, which is in charge of CSAT affairs, with Shim Min-cheol, director of the Digital Transformation of Education Bureau. Shim is considered an expert in college admission matters.

It is rare for a director-level official in charge of university admissions, a key post for the Education Ministry, to be replaced within six months. Lee was put on standby for her next government post for the time being.

"From March, there was a presidential order that the CSAT should be set within the public education curriculum to prevent students from being forced into private education," Jang said.

He said that he had instructed the bureau in charge of college admissions to closely manage the mock college entrance exams in June to reflect this stance in this year's CSAT, "but efforts were not enough, so the director in charge was held accountable."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]