The son of Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and heir-apparent to Samsung Group, got into Younghoon International Middle School for no other reason than being socially-underprivileged.
Lee’s son applied under the category of “students who deserve special consideration.”
In 2008, Younghoon’s expensive tuition became a controversy, that it was a school only for the rich.
As a countermeasure, the school decided to include the unprivileged.
Eligible applicants were children of single parents, or from a family where caretakers are 65 years or older, or from a family of North Korean defectors, or from a family of the disabled.
Lee’s son getting in revived the controversy over the efficacy of that measure.
Samsung said “Lee is a single parent. His child needs extra care because he is emotionally vulnerable. Also, there was nothing rigged about the admission process.”
Perhaps there is nothing is wrong about that statement.
It is just that people are hard pressed to feel it’s just for a child with such a privileged background won over the children who really needed that extra chance.
Many see it not as a benefit for the challenged, rather as a boost for the able.