The incident “is a preposterous mistake” that should not be repeated, the scholars’ lawyer, Kim Woosuk, stated in a information launch this week.
In South Korea, the annual examination often called the Suneung is a severe matter.
Many college students spend most of highschool — and 1000’s of {dollars} a 12 months — getting ready for the extremely aggressive examination. 13-hour days spent totally on teachers and check prep that finish at 10 p.m. should not unusual. Hiring personal tutors or going to costly after-school prep academies often called hagwons is the norm.
On check day, normally in November, airports halt takeoffs to scale back noise in order that tens of 1000’s nationwide can concentrate on their half-hour English listening exams. Places of work delay the beginning of labor to clear morning visitors for college kids dashing to their check websites. The army draft board takes a time without work. The inventory market opens an hour later.
The check itself is a grueling nine-hour battle, which features a 50-minute lunch break and some 20-minute toilet breaks in between topics that embody Korean, English, math, Korean historical past and science.
Within the weeks main as much as the check, college students take pains to eat and sleep proper, like athletes earlier than a giant recreation. Psychological breakdowns through the check should not extraordinary, and getting sick in between topics is widespread.
Kwon Ji-sook, 52, the mom of 1 scholar, stated her son had made a behavior of consuming a vegetable-focused weight-reduction plan within the months earlier than the examination and had practiced with analog watches for a 12 months as a result of digital gadgets aren’t allowed at check websites. All that coaching was upended by the proctor’s mistake, she lamented in a cellphone interview.
However why all of the Suneung stress?
If college students botch the check, they have to wait an entire 12 months to retake it, including extra strain to carry out. Solely highschool seniors or highschool graduates can take the examination.
Small test-score variations, in the meantime, typically decide how prestigious a university a scholar can attend. Going to a prime college means higher lifetime wages, in keeping with a number of research. A research printed by the Korean Financial Affiliation this 12 months stated top-tier faculty graduates made 24.6 % extra of their first jobs than the graduates of the lowest-tier faculties and as a lot as 50 % extra of their early 40s.
The roughly $15,000 that Kim’s shoppers are asking for is the estimated price of spending one other 12 months getting ready for the Suneung examination, Kim says.
An official on the Seoul Metropolitan Workplace of Schooling, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to freely focus on the matter, acknowledged that there had been a mistake and stated the administrator chargeable for the blunder had been given a written reprimand.
Officers gave the scholars an additional 90 seconds throughout lunch time to fill in clean reply sheets however didn’t allow them to vary already filled-in marks. That didn’t assist college students who made a final sprint to mark remaining questions in a straight row quite than depart them clean, Kim stated.
This isn’t the primary time check directors have jumped the gun. In 2020, a supervisor ended a Suneung topic check three minutes early, triggering a lawsuit. An appellate courtroom awarded every of the eight college students $5,300 in damages this 12 months.
