The admissions officer system is touted as one of the incumbent government’s major achievements in education. It is intended to free students from the grueling test-based college entrance process so that they can develop creativity and build character.
Yet the problem is the new student selection method has many loopholes. Under the system, admissions officers of a university assess applicants based not just on their test scores but on other criteria, including their potential, extra-curricular activities, letters of self-introduction and recommendations from their teachers.
But many teachers reportedly refuse to write recommendations for their students, saying their workload is too heavy. According to reports, this has led parents of some students to employ ghost writers and have them write teacher recommendations as well as letters of self-introduction.
One latest example involved a student who entered Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul under the admissions officer system last year by presenting a false recommendation letter from his teacher. The letter depicted him as a student with rich volunteer experience without referring to the fact that he had been on trial for sexually assaulting a middle school girl in May 2010.
The university plans to cancel his admission if he is confirmed to have committed the sexual assault.
Another case involved a broker who was arrested by prosecutors in Seongnam City last month on charges of attempting to pad the applications of students with fake extracurricular activities after receiving 160 million won from their parents.
The broker promised to help the students enter the universities of their choice by presenting the fabricated extracurricular activities to admissions officers.
A more serious problem concerns mathematics and essay tests conducted by top-notch universities. They often raise the difficulty of test questions to a level that goes beyond the high school curriculum.
Some universities even used excerpts from foreign scholarly books as the texts for English-language essay tests. Applicants complained that the texts were too difficult to comprehend.
Universities justify difficult tests by saying that they make it easier for them to assess the qualifications of the applicants. But they should realize that their unreasonable practice lines the pockets of private tutoring institutions in Seoul as students flock to them to prepare for mathematics and essay tests.
This is a form of discrimination against students from poor families or in provincial areas who cannot afford the luxury of expensive private tutoring in Seoul.
To address this problem, the Education Ministry has taken steps. It said Tuesday that seven top-notch universities in Seoul would invite high school teachers as advisers in drafting test questions to ensure that they would remain within the confines of the high school curriculum.
The measure is belated but welcome. The ministry should arrange for other universities to follow suit. It also needs to address other problems of the admissions officer system.
