680 Student Athletes Victimized by Violence... Unfair Admissions Cases in School Records Identified

17th Education Trust Recovery Promotion Team Meeting Held
Comprehensive Survey of Student Athletes in Elementary, Middle, and High Schools Nationwide
Dedicated School Violence Investigation Unit and Police Investigate Perpetrator Student Athletes

Discussion on Follow-up Audit Results of Student Record Admissions Survey at Konkuk University and Others
7 Severe Disciplinary Actions and 13 Mild Disciplinary Actions
Audits Also Conducted by High Schools and Metropolitan/Provincial Offices of Education

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye is holding the 17th Education Trust Recovery Promotion Group meeting on the 13th. (Provided by the Ministry of Education)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] It has been identified that 680 respondents among elementary, middle, and high school student athletes reported experiencing violence.

On the 13th, the Ministry of Education held the 17th Education Trust Recovery Promotion Team meeting to discuss the results of the survey on violence victimization among student athletes and the follow-up special audit results of the comprehensive student record admission process (Hakjong).

◆Elementary student athletes reported higher victimization rates than middle and high school students= The full survey on violence victimization was conducted on 59,401 student athletes. A total of 55,425 participated, and 1.2% of the student athletes responded that they had experienced violence.

The response rate among male students (1.3%) was higher than that of female students (1.0%), and elementary students (1.8%) reported higher rates than middle and high school students (1.0%). Student athletes who are not affiliated with school sports teams but participate individually (1.3%) reported slightly higher victimization than those belonging to school sports teams (1.2%).

There were 519 perpetrators identified, with student athletes themselves accounting for the largest number at 338, followed by sports coaches at 155, teachers at 7, and others (general students, junior student athletes, etc.) at 19.

Regarding the perpetrators, actions are taken based on investigations by the school's dedicated school violence committee and the education support office's school violence deliberation committee. For offending sports coaches and teachers, child abuse reports, police investigations, and measures related to their status and qualifications are carried out.

The Ministry of Education plans to conduct regular surveys on violence victimization among student athletes and announce improvement measures by the end of this year, including strengthening human rights education for student athletes and school sports coaches and installing CCTV in locations prone to violence.

◆All regional balance applicants at Seoul National University failed without reason= The meeting also discussed the follow-up special audit results of the comprehensive student record admission process. This audit was conducted on six universities?Konkuk University, Kyung Hee University, Korea University, Sogang University, Seoul National University, and Sungkyunkwan University?to clarify facts regarding issues revealed in last year's survey on the admission process.

Some universities were found to have unfair cases in the evaluation process of the comprehensive student record admission, such as not adhering to procedures, regulations, and evaluation criteria during admissions. Consequently, 108 personnel faced disciplinary actions (7 severe disciplinary actions, 13 minor disciplinary actions, 74 warnings, 14 cautions), 5 administrative actions (1 institutional warning, 4 notifications), and 3 separate measures were implemented.

The 17th Education Trust Recovery Promotion Team meeting is taking place on the 13th. (Provided by the Ministry of Education)

Specifically, Sungkyunkwan University assigned only one evaluator instead of two for the comprehensive student record document screening in the 2018-2019 academic years, and the evaluator scored each applicant twice alone. At a specific department of Seoul National University, in the 2019 regional balance selection interview evaluation with a quota of 6, all 17 applicants were given a C grade (fail) for reasons of "insufficient academic ability and not meeting university talent standards" regardless of document evaluation results, resulting in no admissions.

Despite listing parents' or relatives' occupations in self-introduction letters or teacher recommendations, no issues were raised, and at Sogang University, no penalties were imposed even though suspicious external career phrases were included in self-introduction letters. Additionally, a professor's child applied for the essay screening, but the professor was appointed as a grader in the same department, and staff members' children were appointed as exam supervisors despite knowledge of their applications.

From this year, applicants' high school information is blinded in the comprehensive student record admission process, and high school profiles have been abolished. The Ministry of Education plans to steadily implement step-by-step improvements such as abolishing self-introduction letters and teacher recommendations.

◆Surveys extended to metropolitan and provincial education offices and high schools= The Ministry of Education also conducted additional surveys on the status of student record entries at high schools and education offices. Based on files submitted by universities, 209 cases of prohibited entries were identified. Each metropolitan and provincial education office issued institutional warnings to six related high schools based on relevant guidelines and last year's disciplinary cases for similar violations, issued cautions to 23 teachers, and recommended corrections for 161 cases.

The Ministry of Education will take measures to prevent recurrence of the same issues in 17 metropolitan and provincial education offices and individual schools, and will continuously check for prohibited entries by reflecting related contents in the education office's student record on-site inspection checklist.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye stated, "We will strictly manage and supervise with a zero-tolerance principle to prevent recurrence of the problems revealed by this audit and on-site inspection," adding, "Regarding violence victimization among student athletes, we will take strict actions against perpetrators and continuously improve protection systems for student athletes."

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