Distrust escalates over school records
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A civic group calls on the government to investigate possible school record manipulation and exam leaks at all high schools across the nation in a rally in front of the Government Complex in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Public distrust is growing over schools' academic records after a police investigation confirmed allegations that an exam was leaked at a girl's high school in southern Seoul were true.
A growing number of people say they cannot trust the evaluations conducted at schools, including exam results and other non-academic achievements, which have become standard for students' college applications.
These people are urging the government to abolish the portfolio-based evaluation for college admissions and instead increase the ratio of college scholastic ability tests (CSAT).
A civic group held a press conference in front of the Government Complex in central Seoul to call for a thorough investigation into all schools nationwide for possible irregularities regarding academic records.
“This is an important issue that affects the education system in college admissions,” the group said in a statement.
“School records take up 80 percent in early admission. Students and parents are angry over the exam leak case and we do not trust school records-based assessments.
“The government has to investigate all corruption cases throughout the nation and eradicate irregularities to prevent similar cases.”
The exam leak case took place at Sookmyung Girl's High School in southern Seoul in July. A teacher allegedly showed exam papers to his twin daughters who were attending the same school. The girls' school records had not been good in previous years, but they suddenly aced the final exam to finish the semester with outstanding results.
Parents suspected the girls' father had shared the exam paper with them in advance, but the teacher and his daughters denied this.
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education conducted a special inspection the following month, and police also investigated. Police searched the school and confiscated the mobile phones of the father and the twin girls, securing critical evidence.
“We have found that the teacher shared exam papers with his twin daughters through his phone. We booked him and the two daughters as suspects,” Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Lee Ju-min said on Monday.
The teacher and his daughters are still denying the allegations.
After the allegations emerged, the Ministry of Education said in July it would strengthen guidelines to prevent further leakage of exam papers.
It said all schools would be required to install surveillance cameras in rooms where the exam papers were printed, and that a parent would not be allowed to teach at the same school as their children.
The Sookmyung case was not the first time an exam has been leaked through teachers.
This year, an administration chief at a high school in Gwangju went on trial for allegedly leaking mid-term and final exam papers to parents. There were two more cases in Seoul where teachers allegedly leaked exam papers.