By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Teachers will be banned from drawing up test questions for private tutoring institutes, or hagwon. Some elite school teachers have participated in making questions for cram schools that help students prepare for admission to specialized schools, such as science or foreign language high schools.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said it will not allow schoolteachers to make mock test questions for elite school entrance. Those who violate the rule will face sanctions.
The move follows a series of leaks of test questions from schools amid alleged illicit relationships between schoolteachers and hagwon.
``If elite schoolteachers make pilot test questions for cram schools, students attending those private institutes could be unfairly advantaged,’’ said an official from the education office.
Earlier, the education office also banned elite schoolteachers from participating in explanatory entrance sessions at cram schools.
It is no secret that some hagwon and elite schools have maintained corrupt relations.
Some schoolteachers are suspected of being involved with the recent leak of the nationwide high school exam to private institutes. Some of the math questions in the test were found to be identical to those at a cram school in southern Seoul. Police are investigating the case.
Meanwhile, the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations asked education authorities to regularly compare school exams and mock tests from cram schools.