By Kim Jae-heun
The regional education office conducted a special inspection, Monday, on an allegation that a school official showed exam papers to his twin daughters who attend the school he teaches at in Gangnam, southern Seoul.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said the inspectors interviewed the teacher, the daughters and other teachers at the school to grasp whether there was any real illegality.
The exam leak allegation first emerged on online communities for parents after the twins, in their junior year, topped the recent final test at the school. Other parents shared their suspicions that the father, who is also a chief administrator at the school, leaked the test papers to his two daughters beforehand because the girls had never come close to receiving such good scores before.
"Both daughters ranked below 100 on last year's final tests. It is impossible they have improved that much in such a short period of time," one of the parents wrote on one community board.
"It makes the situation more doubtful that the students' father works at the same school. The father could have leaked the test papers to them."
For one question on a previous test, the twins entered the same wrong answer, which many suggest is evidence the two could possibly have cheated on school exams in the past.
The father of the twins posted an explanation on the school website saying there was no exam leakage and the daughters' scores improved due to their hard work. But he deleted the posting after the controversy grew even bigger.
Some argue the government should ban teachers from teaching at the same schools their children attend.