"Just 1 Mistake Could...": South Koreans On Government's War On 'Killer Questions'

Activists argue that the country's highly stratified education system, which fuels excessive competition, must be corrected to truly address the issue of private tutoring dependency.

South Korea's leader has initiated a campaign against challenging exam questions and after-school cram centres, but activists argue that true education reforms will only be effective if the government addresses the intense competition faced by teenagers trying to gain admission to top universities, according to a report in South China Morning Post (SCMP). The move has also hit to students hard five months before the crucial university entrance tests.

In recent weeks, officials have cracked down on after-school study sites, known as hagwon, and conducted tax raids on major centres where students stay till late at night to prepare for crucial university entrance exams.

These actions were prompted by President Yoon Suk-yeol's criticism of the inclusion of "killer questions" in the notoriously difficult SATs, or Suneung. Expressing concern, President Yoon said that it was "extremely unfair and unjust" to test students on topics that were not covered in the official curriculum.

He accused the education authorities and private tutoring industry of colluding and functioning like "cartels". In response, the education ministry launched an online platform to report irregularities related to private tutoring, including misleading advertisements, inflated fees, and alleged connections with SAT question setters, said the SCMP report.