Lee Taegyu: "President Yoon Never Ordered Adjustment of CSAT Difficulty"

Assemblyman Lee Taegyu MBC Radio Interview
"Yoon Talked About Strengthening Public Education"

As President Yoon Suk-yeol's remarks regarding the CSAT have sparked controversy, Lee Tae-gyu, a member of the People Power Party, stated, "(President Yoon) never instructed to adjust the difficulty level like this or to set the ratio between early admission and regular admission like that."

Lee, the ruling party's secretary on the National Assembly's Education Committee, appeared on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus" on the 19th and said, "He was talking about preparing to strengthen the competitiveness of public education and setting the scope of the CSAT within the range of public education."

Lee Tae-gyu, member of the People Power Party. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Earlier, on the 15th, Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, said that President Yoon stated, "Questions not covered in the public education curriculum should be excluded from the CSAT."

After speculation arose that this year's CSAT might be made easier, causing confusion, the presidential office explained on the 16th, "President Yoon did not talk about an 'easy CSAT' or a 'difficult CSAT' to Minister Lee yesterday (the 15th)." The Ministry of Education placed the director in charge of college admissions on standby.

Regarding President Yoon's remarks on the CSAT, Lee said, "There is a conflict between private education and public education centered around the CSAT, and the president presented a natural and realistic educational structure to strengthen public education and reduce private education."

In response to criticism that there must be so-called 'killer questions' to ensure differentiation, he said, "Differentiation can be adjusted even within the public education curriculum." Lee added, "If you try to secure differentiation by including one or two killer questions that even so-called university professors cannot solve, such questions fall outside the scope of public education," and said, "Many students rush to private academies, and ultimately, such a situation is undesirable."

Regarding the Ministry of Education placing the director in charge of college admissions on standby and the presidential office's explanation that "there is a need to closely watch today's dismissal as evidence of a powerful vested interest cartel," Lee said, "Issues like killer questions can only be resolved outside the private education market, and since those issues remain unresolved, I believe the president expressed that there might be some vested interest cartel centered around the CSAT."

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