Excluding Killer Questions: "Lee Also Pledges" vs "5 Months Left Until Suneung"

Ruling Party: "Dismantle Private Education Cartel"
Opposition: "Admission Changes Should Be Announced at Least 3 Years in Advance"

The Democratic Party criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol's remarks on the 'fair College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)' as the "worst educational disaster." In response, the People Power Party counterattacked, saying, "Excluding killer questions was a campaign pledge of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung in the last presidential election."

President Yoon announced a policy to create CSAT questions within public education to reduce private education expenses. Although the Ministry of Education was instructed about this three months in advance, it failed to properly implement the policy, resulting in the reappearance of killer questions in the mock exam last June. Consequently, the ministry's university admissions officer in charge of talent policy planning was placed on standby. This appears to reflect the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's strong commitment to educational reform across the public sector.

The Democratic Party criticized the announcement of the 'exclusion of killer questions' policy just five months before the CSAT, saying it could cause confusion among examinees and parents. The People Power Party responded by pointing out that excluding killer questions was a campaign pledge of leader Lee. Lee's education policy pledge, announced in January last year when he was a presidential candidate, included the "abolition of ultra-difficult questions with high dependence on private education."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In turn, the Democratic Party rebutted, citing the timing of the remarks as the issue. Democratic Party lawmaker Song Gap-seok pointed out that President Yoon's remarks came just five months before the CSAT. On the 21st, Song appeared on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' and said, "If we look simply at the exclusion of killer questions, many discussions can be centered on this," adding, "The biggest problem is that the president's remarks came just a few months before the CSAT."

Song said, "When we talk about the CSAT system, even the shortest preparation period is three years," and added, "The problem is that just a few months before the CSAT, the president made remarks that could fundamentally change the question-setting."

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young-jin also said on YTN Radio's 'News King with Park Ji-hoon' that "There are 600,000 examinees taking the CSAT, and such remarks would have been much better if made after this year's CSAT ends, around January next year, when preparing for next year's CSAT," adding, "Saying this just 4 or 5 months ahead makes it difficult for the CSAT evaluation institute and question setters to respond."

On the other hand, the People Power Party defended the presidential office, saying the remarks merely reaffirmed the evaluation institute's basic policy. People Power Party lawmaker Lee Tae-gyu said in an interview with YTN Radio, "The president's remarks reaffirmed the basic policy for next year's CSAT announced by the evaluation institute last March," adding, "I cannot understand what exactly has shaken the CSAT's foundation or caused confusion."

Lee continued, "The opposition party is opposing for the sake of opposition with political motives, but those who even made this part a campaign pledge in the presidential election keep making remarks that try to cause confusion. That is truly wrong politics," he criticized.

People Power Party Secretary-General Lee Cheol-gyu argued that the government's policy is about correcting the flawed private education market. On SBS Radio that day, Lee said, "Is it fair market pricing when some instructors in the education market earn 10 billion to 20 billion won annually?" adding, "It is naturally the government's role to correct a flawed market."

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