Court Maintains Validity of Elementary Teacher Certification Exam Scores Amid 'Question Controversy'... Suspension Request Dismissed and Rejected

Seoul Administrative Court, Yangjae-dong, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] A court ruling has upheld the validity of the announcement of the 2022 elementary school teacher employment exam first-round results, which sparked controversy due to questions being identical or similar to those from a specific school's mock exam.

On the 29th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 12 (Presiding Judge Jeong Yong-seok) dismissed the suspension of execution request against the disqualification decision filed by applicants of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's elementary teacher employment exam against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and others.

Additionally, the court rejected the suspension of execution requests regarding the first-round exam score calculation and the implementation of the second-round exam.

The court reportedly judged that there was no benefit in suspending the disqualification decision, and that the social public interest in avoiding confusion and disadvantages to applicants if the second exam was not conducted outweighed the private interests of the disqualified applicants.

Previously, in the first-round elementary teacher employment exam held on the 13th of last month, it was pointed out that seven questions were identical or had similar content to those from a specific teachers' college's mock exam.

The disqualified applicants filed a main lawsuit seeking cancellation of the disqualification decision, arguing, "It is unprecedented that among 22 questions, 7 to 8 questions overlap in content, with core keywords appearing identically or answers matching exactly. It is difficult to deny the connection between the mock exam and the questions." They also requested a suspension of execution to halt the calculation of first-round exam scores and the disqualification decision.

However, the Evaluation Institute rebutted, stating, "The questions are too general and basic to be considered subjects of a question leak controversy."

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