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| President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with education-related ministers at the central government complex in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
President Moon Jae-in convened a meeting with ministers in charge of education, Friday, to order an overhaul of the university admissions system at the central government complex in Gwanghwamun.
It was the first time for Moon to preside over a meeting specifically on education since he took office in May 2017. The meeting, which was not included in the regular announcement of the President's weekly schedule last week, seems to have been arranged urgently after Moon's remarks on the issue at the National Assembly earlier this week raised some confusion among those in the education sector, as well as parents and students.
"The people are desperately calling for the promotion of fairness in education. The government should take this to heart as our education system is facing a crisis from a lack of public trust. More people are feeling hopeless, believing that education has become a means to inherit one's parents' socioeconomic status," Moon said. "The most important challenge in our education reform is to regain the people's trust through a fair education system. This should start with university admissions."
He said the comprehensive evaluation has failed to gain the people's trust in term of fairness, despite its original intent to select students on a variety of criteria rather than only the scores from standardized tests. "The government needs to listen to the opinions of students and parents who are saying that regular admission based on test scores is more equitable," Moon said.
Moon ordered relevant ministers to prepare measures to raise the people's trust in the comprehensive evaluation system and adjust the "excessive imbalance" at major universities in Seoul in November by expanding the regular admissions system.
On Tuesday, Moon said "unfairness in education" was "heartbreaking for the people" and vowed to increase fairness in college admissions. Moon proposed to raise the proportion of students who are admitted solely on the basis of their College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) scores, rather than comprehensive evaluations based on academic results and extra-curricular activities. Universities in Seoul have been expanding the latter method to select successful applicants, but Moon highlighted the need to put a stop to this trend as it has been criticized for allegedly giving advantages to students from privileged backgrounds, in addition to lacking objectivity. In particular, the problem of unfair admissions practices has received intense attention from the Korean public following the scandal involving the family members of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who are undergoing an investigation on allegations of admissions fraud and corruption.
