Chaos from killing the ‘killer questions’

Lee Ha-kyung
The author is a senior columnist of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Most Korean parents would have some form of traumatic experiences with the college entrance exams their children took. Mine was with my second child 10 years ago. He passed the cut for a university he applied based on the score of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). I accompanied him to the next-stage essay writing test. We got on a bus to the university campus but got off on the wrong stop. My son was 30 minutes late. After much pleading, he barely sat for the test. But he struggled with the bewildering “killer” questions. The father and son suffered from nightmares for a long time.

The so-called “killer questions” — or the brain-racking problems that are out of the boundaries of school curricula and textbooks — have become a hot issue in Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol called them “dreadful monsters” that must be done with — to signal a sweeping reform in the notorious college exam system. The president attacked the “cartel” of private education and star millionaire tutors of afterschool cram schools. The killer questions are cunningly contrived to trick or bewilder students to filter out a very select few who can get them right. Even university professors have hard time cracking them.

President Yoon attacked such questions for “playing with children who are the weaker party.” His aim is to make college entrance exam “fair” in hopes to alleviate some of the gigantic spending on private education that cost a whopping 26 trillion won ($19.7 billion) last year. At the president’s command, the army of tax offices have started to look into the account books of big cram schools. At this rate, this year’s CSAT, taken annually in November, won’t likely include any of the controversial or brainteaser questions. But is the news what all the students have been desperately waiting for?

Korea’s infamous college entrance system won’t go down that easy. One misstep could bring this administration down. It was the illegal college entrance by Chung Yoo-ra — the daughter of the influence-making friend of impeached president Park Geun-hye — that triggered public outcries over the excesses of the former president and her confidante. The fall of President Moon Jae-in was also related to the college entrance irregularities of the children of his trusted justice minister Cho Kuk. To avoid the doom’s way, Yoon’s administration must pay heed to the voices of mothers. Mothers in Korea are experts on college entrance. They smell — and sensitively respond to — even the smallest changes.

Mothers can agree to President Yoon’s intention to fix the CSAT. But they complain about the timing. As their children have studied for the CSAT for years, any sudden changes in the test just five months before the exam could shake their hard-planned strategy.

The law stipulates that the basic direction and question trends of the CSAT should be made public four years ahead. The mock exam results in June would lose their significance by now. Students who have to apply for early college admissions are baffled because application submissions that fall mostly in September need to reflect the final government-administered mock test results in June.

President Yoon raged over the Korean language section in the June test. But students who correctly answered the two killer questions mentioned by Yoon exceeded 36 percent. As many as 1,492 got a perfect score in the June test, four times greater than 371 in last year’s CSAT. Student community sites were filled with postings wondering why the two questions caused an issue when they could have been solved if the text was carefully read and understood. The standards of “killer questions” themselves are shaking. Unsettled parents want the government to clearly explain the guideline for a “fair” CSAT. Sung Ki-sun, former head of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, expressed worries about the possibility of the CSAT’s meticulous question-setting system crumbling under political influence upon the president’s remarks.

Will Korea’s monstrous private education cost come down if the “killer” questions disappear?

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, left, and a senior official at the ministry explain about “killer questions” for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) — which only help fatten the belly of private academies — at the government complex in Seoul, June 26. [NEWS1]

Most doubt it. Hard questions are inevitable to differentiate the 400,000 who sit for the test. That forces students to rely more on private education due to the instability in the public system. Private education costs continued to rise even when the CSAT was relatively easy. The fight with the “monstrous” killer questions could end up only aggravating the uncertainty and confusion.

It is not the time for the president to wrestle with a few difficult questions. He should be working on a fundamental regression of our education system beyond college entrance. We live in the age of artificial intelligence where ChatGPT can solve all kinds of problems. Instead of mechanical — and skilled — test-takers, we need young brains who ask questions that can change the world and explore creativity and imagination. Selecting the brains based on who gets the best score out of multiple questions with one answer does not go well with the mega-trend. We must start a debate on whether to abolish the one-day test and leave admissions up to the universities.

What is the most urgent is to normalize public education, which has come to merely supplement private education. The society must change so that it values individuals based on their capabilities over which universities they graduated from. The dual structure of the labor market also requires a fix. Through these efforts, we must create a world of tolerance, solidarity and equality to uphold human dignity even while respecting competition and success. President Yoon may have succeeded if his upset with killer questions ushers the country toward that direction.

Our founding president Syngman Rhee started to institutionalize free elementary education while the country was living off aid from the United State after the Korean War. Though he could not achieve the goal during his term, he ensured schools be opened in safe areas even during the war. The president set the foundation for equal education, democracy and industrialization. It was a visionary decision. I hope President Yoon goes beyond the killer questions to pave the way for the country’s better future through bold education reform.