Education authorities admitted ― belatedly ― last week that one of questions from last year’s college entrance exam was erroneous. They decided to permit test-takers, who failed to get into preferred universities because their scores were lowered by the flawed question, to receive corrected marks and change schools if they want.
The decision, which followed a recent ruling by the Seoul High Court in favor of test-takers whose grades were affected by the erroneous question, should have come earlier to avoid unjust suffering on thousands of students.
The eighth question in the world geography section of last year’s College Scholastic Aptitude Test asked whether it was “right” or “wrong” that the European Union’s gross domestic product is larger than that of the North American Free Trade Agreement members without specifying the base year. While the answer was supposed to be right as written in textbooks, some test-takers claimed that NAFTA members’ GDP has been larger than the EU’s since 2010.
A group of students last year sued the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, which administers the CSAT, and the Education Ministry that oversees the organization.
The belated decision by the KICE and the ministry marks the first time that an erroneous question has resulted in a change of scoring since the CSAT was introduced in 1994. About 4,800 applicants are expected to benefit from higher grades in the exam, if their marks are corrected.
They will be allowed to enter preferred universities at the start of next semester. But the measure will not make up for the year they have lost and the financial cost their parents might have shouldered.
These unnecessary sufferings could have been avoided, if the education authorities immediately conceded their mistake instead of getting into a legal battle with test-takers. Furthermore, a question related to changing economic statistics should not have been included in the CSAT.
All officials involved in the mistake should be subject to stern discipline. The KICE needs to be overhauled to ensure students will not be victimized again by its incompetence and negligence. However, it seems too hasty to argue that the CSAT should be discarded altogether without suggesting a credible alternative.
