Failure of Educational Policy Leads to Poor Performance by High School Seniors

`The government should be responsible for the failure of educational system.` The results of the tenth scholastic aptitude test (SAT), or college entrance exam, this year showed that those who took the test before far outperformed high school seniors.

The trend, which first began with the launch of the DJ government, has been aggravating for the past five years. According to educational experts, the widening gap is the result of the total failure of the current government’s educational policy, which has led to degrading the level of school education and poor morale among teachers facing earlier retirement.

The Korea Education Course Evaluation Agency released on Dec. 17 an SAT report that analyzes and compares scores on an annual base.

According to the data, high school seniors (98.22) outperformed repeaters (95.1) by 3.12 points in 1994, a year after the test was first introduced. Seniors continued to excel repeaters through 1998 – 6.78 in 1995, 5.31 in 1996, 11.07 in 1997 and 9.2 in 1998.

In its first year, the test was held twice a year in August and November, and applicants were allowed to use the better results for application. After controversy on the level of the two tests, the test was held once a year beginning 1995.

With the launch of the DJ government, Lee Hae-chan, MDP lawmaker and then Minister of Education pushed for an educational reform introducing earlier retirement of school teachers and a new college entrance exam system.

In November 1998 when the SAT was held under the new educational reform policy, those who took the test before began to outperform high school seniors. The gap was then widened over years from 2.9 points in 1999 to 11.2 in 2000 and to 17.7 in 2001.

Although the educational authorities did not disclose total average scored respectively by seniors and repeaters, the sums of average of each segment indicated that the gap was further widened to 29.6 in liberal art and 41.4 in science and engineering last year. The figures for year 2003 were 24.8 in liberal art and 46.5 in science and engineering.

The poor performance by high school seniors was also attributable to the inconsistent educational policy that banned mock tests for high school students. The Ministry of Education unveiled a grandiose plan titled `Reform for 2002 College Entrance` in October 1998, saying that then middle school third graders, who are now college freshmen, would be able to go to college without taking a test.

After the announcement, high schools began to neglect test preparations believing that students needed to be specialized in one area to go to school. Years later, when the entrance test for year 2002 was held last year, the average score fell as many as 66.8 points from a year earlier.

˝Degradation of high school education came as students neglected studying due to the new educational initiative while teacher morale got lower facing earlier retirement,˝educational experts pointed out. ˝The gap between seniors and repeaters is also linked to the failure of educational policy.˝

inchul@donga.com