By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Chung Un-chan expressed concern Friday over the nation's excessive fervor for elite education, which he claims to be chiefly responsible for the leakage of test papers.
He made the remark as police arrested several tutors over the past week for attempting to steal test information of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a standardized test for admission to colleges in the United States.
"I believe the deep-rooted elite culture, where one's educational background is considered of foremost important, is the principal culprit for the incident," Chung said.
Police are investigating two cases of cheating on the SAT, including a private academy lecturer who stole SAT questions in Thailand on Dec. 18 to send them to two test candidates in Korea.
Chung said he is afraid that the country's fanatical zeal for education may tarnish the country's image abroad.
"There are concerns that the illegal leakage of the SAT tests could negatively affect the national image, which has been boosted by the planned hosting of the G-20 summit," Chung said.
Korea has also been chosen as the first country from outside the G-8 and the first Asian nation to host the meeting of the world's 20 major economies in November in Seoul.
Chung added that the country should push education reforms to produce creative human capital and make public education more competitive.