Crackdown on false advertising leaves cram schools perplexed

Social Affairs

Published: 12 Dec. 2023, 19:24

Crackdown on false advertising leaves cram schools perplexed

MegaStudy headquarters in Seocho District, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

Major private cram schools, or hagwon, have expressed surprise at the recent government crackdown on misleading and exaggerated advertisements.

The private education industry argues that exaggerating the qualifications of instructors and textbook authors and inflating the number of students admitted to top colleges has been a common practice and has been tolerated until now.

On Sunday, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) imposed a fine of 1.8 billion won ($1.3 million) on five cram schools and four publications associated with the cram schools.

The five cram schools are Digital Daesung, MegaStudyEdu, SM EDU, Etoos Education Corporation and Hiconsy. Four publishers are MegaStudy, BROKERMATH, Yigam and Imagine C&E.

According to the FTC, MegaStudy exaggerated the profile of their workbook authors as individuals who participated in creating questions for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

In truth, the authors were CSAT test reviewers or participated in making the questions for quarterly mock tests.

The FTC slapped the heaviest fine against MegaStudy, a 1.2 billion-won penalty.

Yigam claimed that approximately 30 specialists with doctorate degrees who had experience contributing to CSAT questions participated in the hagwon mock tests.

However, authorities discovered that only one person held an actual doctorate.

A hagwon official acknowledged the exaggeration of the qualifications of workbook and mock test authors, calling it “a customary practice.”

A former lecturer at a private cram school said hagwon typically inflate lecturers' credentials to enhance the credibility of classes.

“As the quality of the questions crafted by a lecturer is important, [several hagwon] are competitively inflating the lecturers’ resumes,” the former lecturer added.

“Because the list of individuals who participate in creating the CSAT and mock tests is undisclosed, it’s difficult to check if the authors actually participated in making these tests as claimed by the hagwon,” said an employee of a major private cram school. “As such, people have no choice but to believe them.”

The official added that it is more common for hagwon to hire college students to create workbooks, as they are more attuned to recent CSATs they themselves took, compared to professors or teachers.

Sidae Injae in Gangnam District, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

Industry insiders also claim it is common practice to exaggerate the number of students who attended their hagwon and successfully entered top colleges, including medical school.

Sidae Injae advertised that one out of every two students admitted to a major medical school attended their special class.

A MegaStudy lecturer was accused of claiming of successfully getting 50 students, taught offline, into the country’s top colleges.

Even a large number of smaller private hagwons, often run by a single individual, are known to engage in similar practices of exaggerated advertising to attract students.

A hagwon official said that some smaller hagwon claim that a student who gets into a prestigious school was its pupil, even if the student only briefly attended.

The students, however, are responding negatively to the news of the false advertising.

A first-year student at Seoul National University, Park, who took an online class with one of the famous private cram schools last year, said many students preparing for the CSAT prefer hagwon whose authors boast impressive credentials.

“I think [the false advertisements] are malicious, especially considering the difficulty for students to verify the credentials of lecturers and authors,” Park said.

A first-year student at Korea University, Ahn, said he now questions whether the credentials of the lecturer he had last year were fabricated.

A MegaStudy official said that the recent government crackdown would likely serve as a guideline for the industry and improve false advertising.

The government is now setting its sights on college admission consulting agencies.

On Monday, the Ministry of Education said it plans to crack down against illegitimate consulting agencies.

The government has reported Jinhaksa, a company that provided college admission information, such as university score cutlines, for operating without being registered as a hagwon. It is also looking into another consulting firm, Uway.

“Although we can’t tell you in detail as the investigation on the two businesses is under way, both companies have been providing consulting without properly registering as a hagwon,” an Education Ministry official said.

Under the law, a private education facility operating without the proper registration as a hagwon could be sentenced to one year in prison or a fine of a maximum of 10 million won.

BY CHOI MIN-JI, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]