Not every problem is a Gordian Knot

By Cho Hee-kyoung

They say that the pen is mightier than the sword but mightier than the pen, it seems, is the mouth of our president. Just with one word from President Yoon Suk Yeol and the whole education establishment has been thrown into chaos. Five months away from the national scholastic aptitude test (SAT), possibly the most important exam that one can take in one's lifetime in Korea, the head of the institute that sets the SAT questions has resigned. Other high-level officials from the education ministry have been fired too.

It seems that the whole issue has been triggered by a mock CSAT that was held recently, which was deemed to have included too many "killer" questions. "Killer" questions are very tough questions that are designed to separate the very best students from the rest. They have come under fire in past CSATs, when a very difficult text explaining a physics theory appeared as a comprehension question in a Korean language exam paper, and when a question about finance that had no single right answer, according to finance experts, was included in a test.

The president apparently said that these "killer" questions that test knowledge yet do not appear in the regular public school syllabus is what is driving students to private academies, adding to the financial burden endured by the parents, and mandated that such killer questions should not be included in the CSAT exam. Stating that questions should only come from content covered in the public school curriculum and what is available on Education Broadcasting Station (EBS) programs.

In case one wondered what professional qualifications the president has in the science of school education, which allowed him to dictate the content of the college CSAT to such a minute level, well, the People Power Party defended him in parlance reminiscent of sycophancy, which is usually applied to the dictator in the north. It said that he is an education expert having prosecuted many college entrance corruption cases, including former Justice Minister Cho Kuk's daughter.

Setting the CSAT questions is a monumental project in itself. More than a thousand education experts and professors are sequestered with no access to the outside world for a whole month to set the questions under the strictest security measures. It is a task not generally welcomed but this year, no academic is reportedly willing to take part for fear of being arrested if the questions turn out not to be to the president's liking. It may be that no CSAT will be held this year due to the dearth of examiners willing to take part in setting the questions.

What is strange is that while condemning private academies, the government and the party in power have decided to reverse the decision made under the previous administration to abolish special-purpose high schools, such as foreign language high schools, international high schools and independent private high schools. Everyone knows that a significant proportion of private academy education is taken up by middle school students, who are preparing for admission to these selective high schools. These contradictory proposals with no consistent policy or philosophy are enough to make one's head spin.

The president's abrupt criticism of CSAT content is missing the point entirely. Private academies are the symptom of our malady, not the cause. Private academies proliferate because of the cutthroat nature of our society. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening ever more. The chance of getting a well-paid, stable job is minuscule unless one graduates from an elite university. Just getting one question wrong on the CSAT can determine your fate over the entire course of your career. Unless we change this winner-takes-all system of lining up everyone from first to last, based on a single exam result, private academies will continue to proliferate.

Our education system needs to be reformed not just because of the undue financial burden placed on the parents. It needs to be reformed because we are failing our children and ourselves as a nation miserably. There are many different types of intelligence and a wide spectrum of talents that we need in our society. However, our current school system is focused entirely on academic excellence of a particular type to the detriment of virtually everything else. With very few exceptions most schools are geared towards getting students admitted to an elite university rather than nurturing each individual's talents and fostering well-rounded individuals.

And as important as it may be, it is not enough just to reform our education system. Ultimately, the intense competition evident in our society is driven because of the unequal treatment of people based on their profession and status, which are still determined, in large part, by which university one has attended. The disparity that begins at university follows throughout one's life. Without an elite university degree, it is difficult to get a well-paying, secure and stable job at a large corporation. Most irregular workers are non-elite university graduates and their pay, even if they are doing exactly the same work, is at least one third less than that of regular workers. Unless these structural discriminations are properly addressed, the competition that plagues our students will worsen and private academies will continue to prosper by exploiting the students and their parents' fears and hopes.

The list of structural discriminations and biases that are the root causes of our society's intense competition is long and complex. What the president should be doing is setting a broad agenda and policies to address these discriminations on a structural level and eliminating unjust and unfair practices in the labor market. But these fundamental problems are simply too complex and difficult for him to tackle, and he is instead resorting to micromanaging CSAT questions. Somehow, the president seems to believe that every problem is a Gordian knot and he is Alexander. This is an unexpected tragi-comedy on a national scale.

Cho Hee-kyoung (hongikmail@gmail.com) is a professor at Hongik University College of Law.