By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Police began investigations over authenticity of degrees of 3,000 instructors at cram schools in the Gangnam district of Seoul on Monday.
The move comes amid the recent scandal of Shin Jeong-ah, a professor of arts at Dongguk University who forged bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees.
Since the investigation will be conducted on all the instructors in Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa districts, it is expected to send shockwaves across the nation.
According to Songpa Police Monday, it acquired records on degrees of 3,000 former and current instructors at cram schools and institutes in Gangnam District Office of Education and Songpa District Office of Education from June 30 to July 12 and has been conducting investigations ever since.
``We received a report in mid-June that there are many teachers in Gangnam area who have forged school degrees to get employed as instructors, duping that they are from prestigious universities,'' said Ko Byung-chon, an official at Songpa Police Station. ``Based on the data we have acquired, we are currently checking if they really graduated from the recorded schools or not.''
Yang Ki-hoon, an official at Gangnam District Office of Education, said that police officially demanded cooperation with their investigation over all the instructors registered in Gangnam District Office of Education and copied all the data regarding teachers' educational backgrounds.
The police will primarily focus on investigating instructors who claim to have graduated from prestigious Korean universities like Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University.
Authorities will punish teachers who have forged degrees.
When instructors are employed at institutes or cram schools, they must submit their final school record to employers. While institutes keep a copy of the records, the education district office in the corresponding area keeps the original copy. However, district offices of education are not required to check authenticity of degrees. According to the law, one can gain employment as an instructor at private institutes as long as he or she has a minimum of a two-year college degree.
Police and experts point out that there are more than 100 Web sites that issue forged school degrees, leading to rampant forgeries.