Discussion on Reducing Private Education Costs at Party-Government Meeting on 19th... Yoon Addresses Controversy over College Entrance Exam Remarks

Discussion on Reducing Private Education Costs and Enhancing Public Education Competitiveness
Opposition: "A Signal to Make the CSAT Easier"

The People Power Party and the government will hold a party-government consultative meeting on the 19th to discuss measures to reduce private education expenses and strengthen the competitiveness of public education. This is interpreted as an effort to quell the repercussions of President Yoon Seok-yeol's remarks related to the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

According to the People Power Party on the 18th, education committee members of the party and the Ministry of Education will hold a working-level party-government consultative meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of the 19th to discuss measures to reduce private education expenses and strengthen the competitiveness of public education.

Earlier, on the 15th, President Yoon told Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, "Fair discrimination is the essence of all exams, so while maintaining discrimination, exclude areas not covered in the public education curriculum from the CSAT."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The ruling party stated that President Yoon's remarks were not an intervention in the difficulty level of the CSAT but came from the perspective of promoting education reform.

Jung Woo-taek, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly from the People Power Party, said on Facebook, "It is truly regrettable that some people distort the meaning and essence of the president's education reform remarks into a fruitless debate for political gain," adding, "The core meaning of (President Yoon's remarks) is that since CSAT questions not included in the public education curriculum increase the burden of private education expenses, questions that are not in the public education curriculum and only increase dependence on private education should not be included."

On the other hand, the opposition criticized the remarks for encouraging an 'easy CSAT.' Kang Deuk-gu, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, held a press conference at the National Assembly and criticized, "He recklessly made remarks without concrete measures," and asked, "Hasn't the CSAT been a fair test with discrimination until now?" Kang said, "The private education market is already accepting this as a signal from the president to make the CSAT easier," and "There are concerns that it will have a tremendous impact on the upcoming CSAT."

Meanwhile, due to President Yoon's remarks related to the CSAT, attention is also focused on whether the difficulty level of the September mock evaluation by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, scheduled for September 6, will decrease.

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