After Excluding 'Killer Questions,' Lingering Concerns Over Persistently Difficult Water-Suneung Exam

Government to Exclude 'Killer Questions' That Trigger Private Education
Concerns Over Discriminatory Power... "Possible Within Public Education"

The education sector is abuzz with controversy surrounding the exclusion of killer questions (ultra-high difficulty questions). The government has presented the exclusion of killer questions as part of measures to reduce private education expenses, but concerns within the education community have not subsided.

Previously, the government identified killer questions as the main culprit of the 'private education interest cartel' and announced plans to exclude them to create a fair College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

This stems from the awareness that education authorities have easily secured discrimination power through killer questions, while private education companies have conducted 'cram classes' focused on killer questions, leading to overheating in private education.

A classroom of 12th-grade students at a high school in Seoul on the 20th. Photo by Yonhap News

However, some argue that excluding killer questions may not be effective. Jeong Mira, deputy director of the Education Policy Design Institute and a teacher at Byeongjeom High School in Gyeonggi, pointed out on SBS Radio's 'Kim Taehyun's Political Show' on the 22nd, "The reason children attend academies is solely due to anxiety about the CSAT," adding, "We need to consider whether students would attend academies just because of killer questions."

Concerns have also been raised that the CSAT could become too easy (Mulsuneung). Without killer questions, the CSAT might lose its discriminatory power. Contrary to government expectations, some predict that excluding ultra-high difficulty questions could actually lead to an increase in private education.

This is because if ultra-high difficulty questions decrease while maintaining CSAT discrimination power, the proportion of high and medium difficulty questions is expected to increase. Seong Giseon, former president of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, said on MBC Radio's 'Shin Jangsik's News Highkick' on the 20th, "Mid-to-upper or mid-level students will find math much harder, which inevitably leads to an increase in private education."

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho is briefing on measures to enhance the competitiveness of public education at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 21st. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

However, the government reiterated that excluding killer questions does not mean an easy CSAT and emphasized that discrimination power can be secured within public education. Lee Juho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, said on CBS Radio's Kim Hyun-jung's News Show on the 22nd, "It is possible to create questions within the curriculum to secure discrimination power," adding, "Securing discrimination power outside the curriculum is the logic of private education, not the logic of public education experts."

He added, "We plan to create questions within public education, so I don't understand why this is said to promote private education," and rebutted, "For example, now that we say we will remove killer questions, people say semi-killer questions will appear, and that students will have to go to academies to learn those semi-killer questions, but these are all claims made by private academy experts."

Meanwhile, the government plans to announce specific examples of killer questions when it releases measures to reduce private education expenses on the 26th. Regarding private education measures, the Deputy Prime Minister said, "The most important direction is to absorb much of the educational content currently active in private education into public education," adding, "We will ensure that parents do not have to spend large amounts on private education and that children can be educated safely within public education without being pushed into private education."

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