Lee Ju-ho "Ministry of Education Neglected CSAT Questions... Apologize to the Public"

Today's Private Education Cost Reduction Party-Government Working-Level Meeting
CSAT Difficulty Controversy "Not Meaning an Easy CSAT"
CSAT Excludes Questions Not Covered in Public Education

Lee Ju-ho, Minister of Education and Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs, officially apologized on the 19th, stating, "Problems with exam questions that were not covered in the public education curriculum have persisted for a long time, but the Ministry of Education failed to resolve and neglected them," and added, "President Yoon Seok-yeol pointed out this issue, but we were unable to respond promptly, and I apologize to the public."

At the practical working-level party-government meeting on reducing private education expenses held at the National Assembly that morning, the Deputy Prime Minister said, "The starting point and important principle for normalizing public education and reducing private education expenses is the fair evaluation emphasized by the President."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the controversy over the difficulty level of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which President Yoon mentioned in relation to the CSAT question-setting method, he said, "Some raise the so-called 'easy CSAT' issue, but it does not mean an easy CSAT," and "the point is that the CSAT should be fair so that students are not driven to private academies, and it should be a fair CSAT that increases the test's discriminative power and excludes content not covered in the public education curriculum to prevent students from being pushed into private education."

The Deputy Prime Minister also emphasized, "As the head of the Ministry of Education, I will strictly take action against major illegal activities by private academies," and added, "We will also steadily implement tailored measures to normalize public education and reduce private education."

Earlier, it was reported that President Yoon gave a stern warning to Deputy Prime Minister Lee regarding the 'CSAT difficulty controversy.' At a recent briefing where Deputy Prime Minister Lee reported on education reform, President Yoon instructed to fix the problems of the CSAT that force students to seek private education. However, during the briefing, the Minister mistakenly conveyed the message as 'set questions so that students can solve them by just studying hard in school,' which led to the controversy over the 'CSAT difficulty level.'

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