Petition is posted to postpone college entrance exam

As the ‘With Corona’ system is expected to begin around Nov. 9, examinees of this year’s national college entrance exam and their parents are getting increasingly worried about a potential spike in COVID-19 cases. This year’s college entrance exam will be held on Nov. 18.

On the bulletin board for petitions on the Cheongwadae website, a petition to postpone the ‘With Corona’ system until after the college entrance exam was posted on Friday. “Even though vaccinated, there are many cases of breakthrough infection and there is no measure in place to ensure that examinees will be given an opportunity to take an exam by university if contracted the virus,” said the petitioner.

Unlike the college entrance exam, in which even those infected with COVID-19 are allowed to take the test, decisions regarding an exam by university are up to the discretion of each university. That is why examinees are concerned that they may be banned from interviews in case of a positive test result. “I am worried about not being able to attend an interview if I am required to self-quarantine or get infected,” said an examinee in Seoul. The Ministry of Education encouraged universities to allow those under self-quarantine to participate in all steps of an exam by university and to give an opportunity to even those infected via non-face-to-face methods.

In mid-November last year, right before the national college entrance exam, the number of new cases sharply increased in South Korea, leading to the third wave of infections and causing confusion among examinees. Universities requested examinees to refrain from potentially risky activities before an exam by university.

“As examinees and staff members for the national exam have been vaccinated this year, it is expected to be safer than last year,” said an official of a university in Seoul. “Examinees should refrain from activities in places with high infection risk until an exam by university.”


jyr0101@donga.com