Imagine this: You’re a South Korean teenager taking a notoriously grueling 8-hour faculty entrance exam. You’ve been prepping for this for months, maybe years. You attain the English portion, and you see this:
If you thought that was troublesome, how about this?
These have been among the many questions college students confronted within the exam – recognized regionally because the Suneung – this November, which prompted such intense outcry that the exam physique’s high official stepped down final week, in accordance to public broadcaster KBS.
The exam physique even issued a proper apology earlier this month, saying it “takes seriously the criticism that it did not meet the appropriate level of difficulty… for the English portion.”
The physique “deeply apologizes for causing concern to the test takers and parents,” the assertion mentioned, including that directors would seek the advice of faculties to “create questions within the scope of school education.”
But many indignant test-takers and oldsters say an apology isn’t sufficient to make up for the harm in check scores and faculty purposes – which are sometimes seen as the important thing to a profitable future in hyper-competitive South Korea.
Only about 3% of check takers earned a high rating within the English portion – the bottom since a brand new grading system was launched in 2018, in accordance to the exam physique.
“The former head of the evaluation admitted the faults, as he resigned,” wrote one on-line consumer surnamed Choi on the Suneung’s web site. “Is it not common sense to come up with a measure for test takers and parents, who are the victims impacted by the fault?”
“How can an investigation saying what they will do for next year’s entrance exam comfort the test takers that are discouraged this year?”
The Suneung has lengthy been famed for its issue and the extreme strain it locations on younger youngsters. For many, the schooling rat race begins earlier than they’ll even discuss, with dad and mom racing to safe coveted spots in elite preschools.
By the time college students are in center and excessive faculties, their days usually revolve round finding out – going straight from common lessons to after-school cram facilities often known as hagwons till late at night time. All this hard work, households hope, can safe them a spot at a high college, and an benefit within the equally ruthless job market.
It’s not simply the households – the entire nation takes this exam significantly.
On November 13, as greater than half 1,000,000 college students nationwide sat down for the Suneung, all flights throughout the nation have been barred from taking off or landing for half an hour to be sure that there have been no noisy distractions throughout a listening comprehension part. Financial markets opened an hour late and police have been mobilized to be sure that candidates might make it to their check venues on time.
But there’s a hazard to such extremely aggressive checks: they’re usually seen as each a symptom and contributor to wealth inequality, with richer college students ready to entry extra sources that would give them a leg up.
There’s additionally an illicit market concerned. Police booked 126 folks earlier this yr on suspicion of promoting Suneung questions to hagwons and tutors, in accordance to Yonhap News Agency.
The heavy burden on college students is ceaselessly blamed for poor psychological well being within the nation, which had the highest suicide rate amongst OECD nations in 2020, the newest figures out there.
It could affect the nation’s steeply falling fertility price, too.
Experts imagine the staggering tuition bills are a significant factor behind South Koreans’ reluctance to have kids – together with different burdens like long working hours, stagnant wages and sky-high housing prices.
The authorities has tried to crack down on hagwons to even the enjoying area, and to decrease the problem of the doorway exam.
In 2023, it introduced it will take away so-called “killer questions” from the Suneung, which generally included materials that isn’t coated within the public college curriculum – which, the then-education minister argued, gave an unfair benefit to those that can afford non-public tutoring.
Clearly, nonetheless, even the questions that stay could also be an excessive amount of.
“I’m so angry,” wrote a commenter surnamed Jung on the exam physique’s web site. “What are you going to do with the kids’ lives?”
NCS’s Marianna Kim contributed to this report