Suffering Students
Dear editor,
The article, ``Suffering Students,'' appearing in the Korea Times on Nov. 26, showed quite a fair consideration of the problem that happened in Gyunggi Provincial Office of Education.
I agree with your opinion that the 57 students should not ``be the victims of the scandal caused by the greed of grownups,'' and the measures taken by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education were insufficient. It's true that we can not come up with a conclusion until we find clinching evidence, so the 57 students don't need to be held responsible for cheating on exam questions they saw before the test day, because nobody can be sure whether or not they looked at the paper. Furthermore, this problem was caused entirely by the cram school, which had inside connections with some teachers of the Gimpo Foreign Language High School.
Nevertheless, this problem hurts a lot of people who didn't have any intention to commit any wrongdoing. Also, the charges brought against the persons who were responsible for this problem seem quite insignificant. If the owner is able to run another institution, there could be the possibility of this kind of problem happening again, and also if the schoolteachers are permitted to continue their jobs this society might lose confidence in public education. I strongly want to see the law at work in bringing retribution to the guilty parties.
While the result seems unfair if all the entrants have to take the exam again, I think it's inevitable, because there's no other solution. How can we guarantee who has the right to hold admitted status as a result of qualification through the entrance exam, and who ought to give it up? The parents of the students who were already admitted need to share this unexpected result together.
Chung Hea-sun
Seoul