By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Education authorities have issued a disciplinary warning to Yongsan International School of Seoul (YISS) for admitting unqualified students, it was learned Sunday.

They confirmed an earlier report by The Korea Times (Aug. 25) that the school admitted eight unqualified Korean students who were children of the school’s Korean staff. The students in question have now transferred to other Korean schools.

``We’ve issued a stern warning to the school,’’ said O Nam-bum, an official of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE). ``The warning means that if the school accepts unqualified students again, it will face a suspension of operations.’’ Koreans are ineligible to attend the school unless they have lived overseas for more than five years.

This is the first time that an international school has received a punitive warning from the authorities since 2000 when they suspended the operation of the Korea Kent Foreign School for accepting of unqualified students, and because of the embezzlement of school funds by staff, according to the education office.

The latest finding of the breach of rules at the nation’s largest international school gives weight to allegations that there are many unqualified students attending them, some school officials said.

They say some schools accept unqualified students in exchange for ``donations’’ or because of connections with influential social figures.

``A parent offered to donate 1 billion won if his unqualified child was accepted. We rejected the offer. Also some politicians and other influential people try to pressure foreign schools to admit their children,’’ an official at one school said, declining to be named.

Lax Supervision

Some expatriate parents are also complaining about the unfair admission system of foreign schools, calling Yongsan International’s case the tip of the iceberg. They say that foreign schools are accepting too many Korean students, crowding out children of foreign nationals.

``It seems international schools here are favoring Korean nationals working for foreign companies over children of expatriates working for Korean companies. This does not make sense. How does this encourage foreign direct investment?’’ said a foreign parent, asking not to be named.

Education authorities say they have no immediate plans to look into other international schools over possible rule violations or irregular admission of students.

Yongsan’s violation included making false reports about its students to the education office.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which is working to relax rules on the admission of Korean students to foreign schools, has biannually released data on students at foreign schools at the request of lawmakers.

``We admit the data we submitted to the National Assembly was incorrect,’’ Sung Sam-je, a director of the planning division of the ministry, said. ``But we have no plan to inspect foreign schools.’’

His remarks indicate the government plans to relax rules on foreign schools without instituting appropriate monitoring and supervision of them. With the relaxation of the rules, the minimum years required for Korean students to live overseas for enrollment at international schools will be shortened to three years.

Yongsan International School’s board will have a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the school’s misconduct. However, the board is not expected to take any action on it. ``We cannot go beyond the education ministry’s action. We don’t even have right to access admission information,’’ said Kang Ho-min, secretary general of the school foundation.

There are some 50 foreign schools with about 10,000 enrolled students. Among them, Seoul has 20 and the city plans to build three more by 2012.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr