South Korea's war on 'killer' exams leaves students in distress: 'like I was struck by lightning'

As South Korea's leader declares war on "killer" exam questions and after-school cram centres, activists say any education reforms will only be effective if the government manages to alleviate the intense competition teenagers face to get into choice universities.

Officials have in recent weeks cracked down on after-school study sites, or hagwon, and conducted tax raids at major centres where students can stay until almost midnight to review for the all-important university entrance exams.

The moves come after President Yoon Suk-yeol earlier this month lambasted the inclusion of "killer questions" in the notoriously difficult SATs, known as Suneung, telling Education Minister Lee Joo-ho it was "extremely unfair and unjust" that students were tested on challenging topics which were not even covered in the official curriculum.

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"Seeing this, people could believe education authorities and the private tutoring industry are in cahoots," Yoon said, accusing education authorities and the private education sector of effectively working like "cartels".

Following this, the education ministry last week launched an online platform to report irregularities related to private tutoring, including exaggerated commercials made by cram schools, inflated tutoring fees and their allegedly covert association with educators who set SAT questions.

According to a 2021 report by the Seoul Metropolitan Bureau of Education, more than 100 Seoul schools were caught posting false or misleading advertisements and subsequently received official warnings or fines.

Tax authorities also raided the country's top three cram schools, including the largest Megastudy, for an unannounced tax investigation as the presidential office warned of legal penalties against any hagwon suspected of tax evasions and other irregularities.

Megastudy saw its annual sales jump 19 per cent to 836 billion won (US$635 million) last year, with its operating profits surging 36 per cent to 134 billion won. In 2022, there were some 85,000 hagwons across South Korea.

Its head Son Ju-eun on Tuesday dismissed allegations that South Korea's private tutoring industry, public education authorities and SAT-making authorities were "in collusion" to profit from killer questions.

Killer questions began appearing in tests in 2008.

That is also when the private tutoring industry flourished only "as a response to changes in the SATs" to include killer questions, Son said on a KBS news talk show.

Son said the country's private tutoring market - which was worth 22 trillion won (US$16.7 billion) last year, about 1 per cent of the country's total GDP - would be on a downward spiral soon due to South Korea having the world's lowest birth rate, falling from around 400,000 in 2016 to 290,000 last year.

Yoon's attacks against killer questions have unsettled many students and parents because they come just months before November's crucial annual tests.

"I felt like I was struck by lightning only five moths before Suneung," an 18-year-old girl at Hangaram High School in Seoul, who has to sit for the exam in November, told online news outlet MoneyS.

"It took me by surprise as I've spent thousands of dollars for private tutoring for my kid to prepare him for so-called killer questions," said a 62-year-old father named Park, whose son is preparing for this year's test in hopes of making it to medical school.

A private maths tutor, who identified himself as Chang, said that removing killer questions would be a blow to the top 1 per cent of students who were good at solving challenging problems.

"Now, just one mistake in Suneung could push you down from the top level to the third level, and change the entire course of your life, as there would be a lot of students who will receive almost perfect scores," he said.

Another father of a student who is sitting for the exam a second time said demand for private tutoring would persist as long as South Korea's current intensive student evaluations to enter colleges remained the same.

"Under these circumstances, it's ridiculous to believe that tutoring will disappear by removing killer questions," he said.

Pro-reform activists said while Yoon's order was an opportunity for South Korea to make the SAT a fairer test and ease demand for private tutoring, more needed to be done.

"In the long term ... the country's education system which comprises highly stratified schools must be corrected as private tutoring feeds on the excessive competition to enter best schools," said Shin So-young, a policy director at Noworry, a civic movement campaigning for education reform.

Shin So-young, an activist at civic group The World Without Worry About Private Education, said the planned changes may not be enough to contain the competition.

"The government needs to come up with a broader plan that addresses the question of how to alleviate this excessive competition to get into a few of the best universities," Shin said.

Gang Hye-seung, a leader at Chamhakbumo education reform movement, said authorities should focus on "levelling the playing field in educational opportunities rather than scratching the surface" with moves like removing killer questions.

"There is no evidence that egalitarian education hampers national development," she said.

Nearly eight in 10 students use private education products such as cram schools, according to a joint report by the education ministry and the government statistics bureau showed.

This heavy reliance on private education has led to South Korea having the world's highest cost of raising a child, according to a report last year.

Government data from 2022 showed households with an average monthly income of 8 million won (US$6,100) or more spent an average of 648,000 won per month for secondary school students to receive an average of 9.4 hours of lessons per week at a hagwon.

Since a total ban on private tutoring in 1980 under then-military dictator Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea has repeatedly cracked down on private tutoring.

However, efforts failed as parents kept finding ways to circumvent laws and regulations, because in this highly competitive society the best schools often means the best chance of a good job and the best prospects of marriage.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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