Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education 'Demands' Minimizing Disadvantages for Current 3rd Year High School Students

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] The Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education announced on the 10th that changes are needed to minimize disadvantages for third-year high school students in relation to the '2021 College Admission System Improvement' movement.

Recently, major universities such as Seoul National University and Yonsei University have been hastening revisions to their early admission screening processes to reduce disadvantages for third-year high school examinees who were unable to attend in-person classes for an extended period due to COVID-19.

In the case of Seoul National University, the admission requirements (minimum CSAT score criteria) for the regional balanced selection screening, which is exclusively for third-year students, have been relaxed, and Yonsei University has decided to minimize the reflection of third-year extracurricular activities in the student record comprehensive screening.

The Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education welcomes this and believes other universities should actively consider similar measures.

They also emphasized the need to establish fair evaluation criteria to ensure that third-year students in Jeonnam, who have a relatively high dependence on public education, do not suffer disadvantages.

The Office anticipates significant concerns that the prolonged suspension of in-person classes due to COVID-19 has created an absolutely unfavorable situation for current third-year students, widening the gap with graduates.

In Jeonnam, the participation rate in private education among elementary, middle, and high school students is 61% (Ministry of Education 2019 Private Education Expenditure Statistics), the lowest nationwide. This indicates a high dependence on public education, meaning the damage caused by the delay in school attendance is relatively greater.

Accordingly, through the National Council of Superintendents of Education and other channels, they have continuously demanded changes to evaluation criteria and relaxation of minimum CSAT score requirements to eliminate advantages and disadvantages between current students and graduates and to ensure fairness.

The Office of Education will continue to request related organizations and universities to join these efforts and plans to expand opportunities to provide information to Jeonnam students and parents through the college admission information fair scheduled for next month.

Superintendent Jang Seok-woong said, “Due to COVID-19, with school attendance delayed for more than three months, there are concerns about disadvantages in college admissions for third-year students, especially those in Jeonnam who have the highest dependence on public education nationwide. The Ministry of Education and universities should promptly revise the college admission screening plans to alleviate the anxiety and worries of third-year students in the Jeonnam region.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.