Vice Education Minister Park Choon-ran speaks at the government complex in Sejong, Thursday, on the ministry's plans to reform the College Scholastic Ability Test. / Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho

The government will implement an absolute grading system for either all subjects or some of them in Korea's college entrance exam, which has long been blamed for creating excessive competition and ramping up private education costs.

The Ministry of Education revealed the two options to reform the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), Thursday. One is to completely remove grading curves; the other is to remove them from three subjects ― English, Korean history, and common social/science studies.

The test is currently on five mandatory subjects, and two ― English and Korean history ― are scored on absolute grading scales. In 2020, the test will be expanded to six subjects.

The ministry will hold four hearings to collect opinions before making a final decision Aug. 31.

One of the most important goals, the ministry said, is to ease competition among students, who spend long hours in cram schools preparing for the test that has lasting consequences for their subsequent careers.

"We believe (either way) the new test will lighten the burden of private education costs for parents," a ministry official said.

Korea's college entrance exam, which students can take only once a year on the same day at the same time, is not about getting as many answers right in the multiple-choice questions as possible. More precisely, it is about outdoing their peers.

This creates fierce competition between students up until the test day. Meanwhile, their parents pour lots of money into private education.

Ending this wasteful competition was one of President Moon Jae-in's key education pledges during his campaign. And last month, he appointed Kim Sang-gon as the new education minister, who vowed to shake the system up by removing grading curves from the exam.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers, the country's second-largest teachers' union, urged the ministry to adopt absolute grading for all subjects while expressing support for its reform direction.

Other left-wing civic groups, including the World Without Worries About Private Education, also urged the ministry to be more determined to change the current "creativity-killing" test and prepare for a better future.

But many right-wing civic groups expressed opposition. They claimed a test without grading curves will only fuel "education fever" and force students to spend more money on private education as a means of standing out from the crowd.

Opinions are divided among teachers, too. According to a survey by the Korean Federation of Teachers' Association, 51.9 percent of elementary, middle and high school teachers say they support adopting an absolute grading system for the CSAT, while 39.7 percent say they are against the idea.