New College Admissions Plan Delayed Indefinitely

The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development announced yesterday it has decided to “postpone indefinitely” the announcement of a revised college admissions system, citing “unexpected problems encountered such as with the high school ranking survey.”

The ministry said on Aug. 26 that it would announce its final scheme for a revised college admissions system for 2008 and thereafter on Sep. 23, after collecting people’s opinions through a nationwide hearing tour.

However, major issues such as student selection factors and methods for keeping cumulative records have not been discussed enough, and the high school ranking system has become a topic of hot debate. The Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union (KTEWU) and other relevant organizations are requesting nullification of the plan to revise the college admissions system.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry decided to inspect six private universities, including Yonsei University, from Sept. 20 through 22 to see if they applied high school rankings in their special admissions. Because of this, the ministry is not able to finalize its revision of the admissions system.

--Not Easy to Settle the Revised Plan

The educational community has been at odds with the Education Ministry ever since the ministry announced it would release a revised college admissions system that reduces the weight of the college entrance exam scores while increasing the weight of grade-point averages. The plan would divide the college entrance exam scores into nine categories.

The KTEWU and the national parent’s organization are demanding to “abolish the entrance exam or simplify its scores into five categories,” while other organizations including universities are requesting to subdivide the scores even further, into at least 15 categories, in order to distinguish students’ academic ability.

The Committee for Emergency Measures to Prevent Use of High School Rankings and Revival of Individual College Tests and to Establish Better College Admissions System, comprised of about sixty organizations including the KTEWU, is asking to “put the process for revising the admissions system on hold and to create an organization to collect nation’s opinion on this issue to make a revision that all nation will agree.”

KTEWU spokesperson Song Won-jae said, “The ministry can try to achieve society’s consent first without hurrying to decide this issue and trying to apply the revised plan starting from 2008. The new system can be started from 2009.”

As a result, it is expected that the Education Ministry will not be able to confirm its revised plan easily, even if the controversy over the high school ranking system ends.

--Emergency Alert to Specialty High Schools

Specialty high schools such as science and foreign language schools will start to accept applications from late October, and start their selection processes for new students, including interviews and admission tests, in early November.

Therefore, students targeting these schools this year are being advised to make their decisions whether to enter these specialty high schools after reviewing the new college entrance system by no later than mid-October. If the system that puts more emphasis on GPA is selected, it may disadvantage students in these specialty schools, where superior achievers are abundant.

A 15-year-old junior high school student, identified by her first name, Shim, has been preparing for a foreign language specialty high school by attending specialized private institute classes. She said, “I am very curious to know whether, if I go to one of these foreign language high schools, it will mean I have to apply only for foreign language departments in college. I also want to know if there will be any disadvantages in GPA. I may give up going to this specialty high school if it is going to give me any disadvantage for college admission.”

Kim Il-hyung, assistant principal at Seoul Daewon Foreign Language High School, said, “The new plan will not create any disadvantage for specialty high school students, any more than the current system is doing. Still, students will be concerned and will want to know before they make their final decision.”

Regarding this, an official at the Education Ministry said, “The ministry will decide on the revision as soon as possible, since most agree on the principle of emphasizing GPA.”

Seong-Chul Hong sungchul@donga.com