Teachers to be reported to police for selling CSAT questions

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Teachers to be reported to police for selling CSAT questions

Published: 19 Sep. 2023, 18:38 Updated: 19 Sep. 2023, 18:58

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon speaks at the fourth meeting of the pan-government committee against private education cartels at the Government Complex in Sejong on Tuesday. [EDUCATION MINISTRY]

Twenty-four teachers who are suspected of selling questions or their services to private education companies after participating in drafting questions for the mock version of Korea's university entrance examination will be reported to the police, the Education Ministry announced Tuesday.

The decision was made public by Education Minister Jang Sang-yoon at the fourth meeting of the pan-government committee against private education cartels, which was formed shortly after President Yoon Suk Yeol pointed out the difficulty of solving so-called “killer” questions on a mock exam for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in June.

The Education Ministry conducted a two-week intensive self-reporting period from Aug. 1 to allow incumbent teachers to turn themselves in if they had profited from selling questions or giving lectures to private education companies in violation of laws against the participation of public school instructors in private sector activities.

A total of 322 cases of teachers doing paid work for the private education sector were uncovered during the self-reporting period, according to the minister.

“After analyzing and checking details included in voluntarily submitted reports, [we] confirmed that some of the teachers who reported transactions with private education companies had participated as question writers or reviewers in the CSAT compilation process and the CSAT mock examination,” Jang said during the committee meeting.

Jang announced that his ministry had decided to request criminal investigations into 24 teachers after conducting a comprehensive legal review of the teachers’ activities, including the timing and nature of the allegations against them and the amount of money they received through their suspected illicit activities.

Jang specified that four teachers who participated in the CSAT were found to have concealed their sales of questions to private education companies and that they will be immediately reported to the National Police Agency for obstructing and undermining the CSAT drafting and compilation process.

He also noted that 22 teachers who sold questions to private education companies and received large payments in return will be referred to the National Police Agency for investigation on suspicion of violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act and breaking their obligation to maintain confidentiality under the laws governing government-funded research institutes.

Some teachers were found to have committed multiple violations, the minister noted.

In an earlier preliminary review of claims filed during the August reporting period, an Education Ministry official told reporters that one math teacher at a private high school in Gyeonggi received around 480 million won ($361,000) from August 2018 to July of this year in exchange for writing mock exam questions for a private education company.

A chemistry teacher at a private high school in Seoul was also given 380 million won after signing deals with two large private academies to offer test questions.

Both teachers were not approved to hold concurrent job positions.

According to the State Public Officials’ Service Regulations, public officials are not allowed to “concurrently perform” other businesses unless they are approved to do so by the heads of their institutions.

The education minister said the latest referral of 24 teachers for criminal investigation was necessary to restore the “fairness” of the CSAT, a test that hundreds of thousands of test takers sit for each year “to realize their precious dreams.”

Jang noted that the exam is seen in Korean society as “symbolizing fairness of opportunity” and also as a “reflection of parents’ earnestness.”

He also called for an end to efforts by private education “cartels” to “undermine” the university entrance exam by trying to illegally obtain CSAT questions to offer a leg up to prospective test-takers.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]