“Increasing Weight of Grades Will Be Negative – More Weight Should be Given to SAT and University Exams”

While the government and major universities are in a dispute over how much weight should be given to school grades, Heo Gyeong-cheol of the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation, a state-sponsored organization, caused a stir when he said more weight should be given to the SAT and university exams because an increased proportion of weight in grades will result in negative side effects.

On September 11, Heo will give his presentations titled, “Comprehensive analysis on the validity of the school grade system” at the forum “Validity of school grade system and autonomy of universities in selecting applicants” hosted by the Korea Dialogue Academy.

Heo, who was formerly a director of the institute, claims, “The current school grade system is socially valuable, in that it will grab the students’ attention to the school, maintain the teachers’ authorities, and narrow the gap between urban and rural students, but since the school grade system has become an evaluation criteria for entering prestigious schools, more negative side effects will occur if the weight of school grades expands.”

Heo also said the school grade system has many flaws:

- It is being used for “selecting applicants” and not for “educating students”

- It pursues objectivity only rather than validity

- It degrade the quality of education evaluation as an absolute evaluation is shifting to relative

- It discourages efforts in improving education such as tailored education

He continued, “Students cannot waste time for trial and error for self-reflection because they have to focus on raising their grades for three years.” He pointed out, “Mindful of claims, teachers are shunning marking subjective test sheets, dumbing down education.”

Heo argued, “Private tutoring has nothing to do with the school grade system, thus it should be solved by other ways. We should consider phasing out the weight of school grades, to the point that it is even abolished. Instead we should increase the weight of SAT and university exams.”

Heo suggested that the current nine-grade system be lowered to five and that it would be desirable to take the grades of the last year.

Meanwhile, Gwak Byeong-seon, former director of Korean Educational Development Institute and the dean of Kyung In Women`s College, said, “The problem with the current university entrance exam is the discord between the universities, which want to select outperforming applicants, and the government, which deliberately blurs the differences of students’ capabilities. There is great distrust of government policies that seek short-term changes in institutes while failing to establish a trustworthy system for managing school grades.”

foryou@donga.com