[Column] SNU, Harvard yardsticks differ

It is reassuring to hear that a high school girl, who foresaw difficulty entering Seoul National University because of her poor school records, has succeeded in the admission to Harvard University and MIT in the United States. The news report also exposes the disarray in the nation's college entrance system.

The event should not be viewed as a mere accident but assessed as a natural product generated from the nation's irrational educational system. Learning that the college entrance applicants who earned full marks failed in special college entrance or thousands of the students who obtained more than 390 marks flunked, such cynical remarks as watered-down scholastic aptitude tests, SAT inflation or SAT upheaval are heard in society.

There are increasing number of high school students who quit their schools and are studying for taking qualification examinations for college entrance. Moreover, college entrance scandals have broken out of late in connection with the preferential college admission system for the long-term Korean residents abroad. A series of these incidents is disappointing the people and obliged us to reconsider the overall educational system of the country.

In short, this morbid practice has been caused by the nation's extremely regulated and standardized college admission system, bereft of creative education and a knowledge-based society.

In a sense, this attests to that there are a wide differences in the school admission systems between Seoul National University and Harvard, whereby excellent students cannot be denied entry to good colleges due to the differential yardsticks used to choose the students. This is mainly because there are no systems under which students who scored excellent SAT records and scholastic performance alone or who have unique talent in some specific academic subjects.

If the applicants who obtained top scores failed in the exams, it is obvious that there is a serious problem with the nation's college entrance system.

The key to sharpening the international competitiveness in the knowledge-based society of the 21st century is the educational system. And the college entrance system is the vital part of the educational system and the mainstay for cultivating high-quality manpower. But the prevalent and long-time criticism is the uniform educational and college admission system. There should be no more students who are disappointed by the educational system and leave the home country. All of the students, parents, the government, high schools and universities need to participate in the creation or restoration of the educational system commensurate with the era of the knowledge revolution.

First of all, there must be a clear distinction between scholastic and aptitude tests. Since the SAT system was adopted, the exam needs to be conducted effectively to grade the aptitude and capability of the college admission applicants. If the students good at their studies are fearing the entrance exams, there must be something wrong in the system.

It is suggested in this regard that standardized scholastic tests from elementary schools to high schools, and there are too many students with high scholastic scores, their school records could be used as supplementation to grade them. In order to discourage the competent students from leaving the country, the existing special high schools need to be maintained and developed, in line with their original schooling goals. In particular, the off-campus tutoring practice must be curbed, while in-campus schooling as well as special activities needs to be overall supplemented.

As for colleges and universities, it is the time for them to develop a viable system to add value to students, once they are admitted to the schools. The colleges need to improve the "total test system" involving the SAT, school records, interviews and so on. To this end, the universities must be guaranteed the right to choose students independently. The educational system centered around entrance examinations should be shifted to raise the quality student compatible with the knowledge-based society. The regimentation of the college entrance methods will harm the national educational system as a whole and cause the superior students to take flight from the home country. The negligence of the educational system is the negligence of our children's education. A new system is necessary for the universities to select the freshmen under their own authority with various standards involving scholastic, aptitude, special talent, etc.

In this respect, there is a marked difference in the yardstick to choose the students between Seoul National and Harvard universities. Harvard weighs the independence of the college, students' creativity and their potential, whereas SNU and other Korean universities are underlining outside intervention, regimentation and test scores.

Lee Hyun-Chung, secretary general of the Korean Council for University Education