By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The latest leakage of questions from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) has pushed the test's organizer, Educational Testing Service (ETS), to take measures to root out such incidents.

It comes at a time when Korean police are expanding their investigation of private academic institutes in Gangnam, southern Seoul.

An instructor identified by his surname, Jang, and three college students, who were temporarily hired by the instructor, are now being questioned for smuggling SAT exam sheets out from a test center in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, where they took the test last Saturday.

Police requested an arrest warrant for the instructor, Monday. According to authorities, the three initially planned to take the test at a high school in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, but they changed the venue to Gapyeong Middle School on the day of the exam.

The college students tore out sheets of the test or typed questions into a scientific calculator. They were paid 100,000 won to do so. The ETS is reportedly aware of Jang's activities, and dispatched executives to Korea when the Korean police started to investigate the case.

Cheating and leakage of SAT questions have occurred at private academic institutes here.

Last week, another SAT instructor was arrested for obtaining a copy of a test paper from Bangkok and then e-mailing it along with answers to Korean applicants in the United States.

Last January, some Korean test takers smuggled out test sheets and sent scanned copies by e-mail to acquaintances in the U.S., who could review the test, taking advantage of the time difference between Korea and the U.S.

In 2007, the test organizer canceled the test scores of Korean students due to a cheating scandal.

However, ETS has yet to come up with measures against such cases.

When contacted by The Korea Times, ETS said it had no comment.

Going to U.S. universities has become popular among those who are not satisfied with the level of education offered by Korean universities, as well as those who cannot get into the most competitive Korean universities.

There are more Koreans studying at U.S. schools of all levels than foreign students from any other country, according to U.S. government statistics, which counted 103,000 Korean students.

For higher education, only India and China, countries with populations many times that of Korea, send more students.

In 2008, South Korean households spent 20.9 trillion won ($18 billion) on private education to supplement the perceived shortcomings of the public school system, and the number of private educational institutes has increased nearly 50-fold since 1970, according to the education ministry.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr