Fair admissions policy

Suspicions that the daughter of Justice Minister nominee Cho Kuk may have used illicit means to get into prestigious schools are raising questions about the fairness of the current college admissions system. President Moon Jae-in called for a review of the system Sunday, and then the Ministry of Education held a meeting to discuss the matter. However, education experts expressed concern that the issue may get handled with more haste than caution in the aftermath of Moon’s remarks.

Few would deny that unfair factors remain in our college entrance system. True, the current formula based solely on school records differs much from that implemented when the nominee’s daughter entered Korea University in 2010. Nonetheless, the general perception is that the standard admissions process requiring written tests is fairer than the school records-based plan.

The education ministry has embarked on improving the college entrance system but it’s difficult to expect a new mechanism ensuring fairness and transparency to be implemented anytime soon. Under relevant laws, a new system must be proclaimed four years before its enforcement, and therefore the new system would go into force only in 2024, even if it is finalized this year.

What’s urgent to enhance the fairness of the school records-based admissions system is to remove such factors as award-winning that could be influenced by parents’ wealth and/or social position in screening documents. There will be greater voices to expand university admissions based on the state-administered College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), although the test also has its own problems such as the revival of rote learning.

Nevertheless, it may be inevitable to raise the CSAT proportion from the present 30 percent in view of the public’s strong doubts about records-based admissions. What’s certain is that the Moon administration must come up with a viable solution to put an end to the controversy over fairness in the college entrance system.