[Editorial] “Three Taboos” in University Admissions Should Not Become Law

It is rumored that the Uri Party has decided to make the “three taboos” a law. The “three taboos” are high school rankings, individual university entrance examinations, and donation admissions in the university admissions process. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources said that it is trying to decide on what level to legalize the three taboos. Does it mean this “participatory government” wants to invoke an “emergency education measure” by intervening in the university student selection process” and making a law to prohibit autonomous student selection?

Now that both supporting and opposing opinions for high school rankings are equally strong and based on individual interests and viewpoints, it is time for us to “gather all our wisdom in order to normalize school classes, preserve the autonomy of universities, and increase national competitiveness” according to Ahn Byeong-young, education minister. Such anti-democratic attitudes forcing the populace to conform to the “three taboos” without any questioning cannot be accepted. In particular, the ruling party’s perception to consider universities’ resistance as a “head-on confrontation with the government” reminds one of the authoritarian governments of the past. It is suspicious that there might lie some political intention through making a political issue out of the university admission system and encouraging class conflicts between Gangnam and non-Gangnam residents, which symbolize the wealthy and not-so-wealthy.

It is necessary to see reality in the cold light of day before this situation runs to extremes. Today, even teachers are sending their children abroad to study due to the unreliable public education system. Private education expenses that were supposed to decrease by banning individual university entrance examinations have instead increased, and the academic achievement gap among schools has broadened. Under such conditions, does legalizing the “three taboos” mean that universities should select their new students with their eyes closed? How can a country filled with universities who equalized their student selection standards at a lower level be competitive internationally, and how can university graduates from such a system form an intelligent society?

In a real free democratic society, one should get rewards based on the efforts he or she makes. The public education system should, of course, be improved to a great extent so that individuals can grow their potential talents to the maximum. However, if students advance to high school regardless of how much effort they put and how good their performances are, and then advance to higher education regardless of what they learned in school and what their academic achievements were, that is nothing more than broken equalitarianism.

We live in time when superior individuals can earn the income of tens of thousands of people. Legalization of the “three taboos” is equalizing our education to lower level and a policy that caters to the mobocracy. The government and the ruling party should give up its attempt to make these taboos law. Instead, they should put their time and effort into normalizing the public education system and ensuring university autonomy in the admissions process to increase our national competitiveness.