Government Won’t Allow University to Give More Weight on Essay Tests


By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

The government has clashed head-on with Seoul National University (SNU) over the school’s attempt to put more weight on essay tests under its new admissions plan.

Policymakers of the government and the ruling Uri Party Wednesday decided to prohibit SNU from holding their own essay tests on such subjects as history, science, philosophy and art.

The move came after SNU announced June 7 a plan to give more importance to the written section of their admissions exam for the 2008 school year.

``We plan to mobilize all possible means to block SNU from holding its own written tests,’’ a government official said after key policymakers of the Uri Party held a meeting yesterday with Kim Jin-pyo, minister of education and human resources development.

The government has maintained a ban on the high school ranking system, admissions by donation, and on universities establishing individual test systems.

SNU claimed that each school’s own test system the government is banning refers to the written answers for questions about Korean language, math and English.

It added its test will be different from it, specifically short essays answering questions that students can solve with knowledge on combined subjects including history, society, art, science and philosophy.

However, education officials and civic groups claim the new admissions plan is actually a resumption of an individual test system, adding it could simply further aggravate the private tutoring frenzy.

The government will soon request SNU to give up its bid on written tests, threatening to impose financial and administrative sanctions on the university if the school refuses to go along with the request.

Announcing the new admissions system, SNU said the College Scholastic Aptitude Test will also be used as a qualifying exam, and the importance of students’ scholastic performance at high schools will not be strengthened.

The plan is also in defiance of the government policy to increase the ratio of scholastic performance at high schools for the admissions test. The authority said it will help education play its proper role to reduce students’ heavy reliance on private tutoring than on school grades.

Other universities, such as Yonsei University, Korea University and Ewha Womans University, also announced their admissions test plans soon after SNU’s announcement. Their plans also contain strengthened written tests.

In a report to President Roh Moo-hyun, the Presidential Commission on Education Innovation stated that SNU’s admissions test may undermine government efforts to improve school education with intensified scholastic performance.

The commission also pointed out that the universities should have discussed their admissions plans with high schools beforehand.

However, SNU president Chung Un-chan showed displeasure with the government’s response to the school’s plan. ``It is regretful that our intention to select students with creativity in various fields has been misunderstood,’’ he said.

Chung added that the university will adopt the written exam within the education authority’s policy and that the school has not discussed the issue with the government yet. He also suggested that each university be allowed to select students in its own way.

Some 40 civic groups and parents’ groups, such as the National Association of Parents for Cham (True)-Education, have formed a coalition to protest against those universities’ admissions schemes, holding rallies in front of the government complex downtown Seoul on Tuesday.

They welcomed the government’s resolve to stop SNU’s essay test.

``The written exam requiring knowledge about various subjects together aims to evaluate the knowledge which students cannot get at schools, resulting in a surge in private tutoring,’’ the coalition said in its statement.

The urged SNU to scrap its admissions plan and take what they see as the responsibility incumbent of a leading university. ``The society should set up a mood that students enter universities with the knowledge they acquire at high schools, not private institutions,’’ Park Bom-i, a member of the parents association said.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr