The Ministry of Education Aims to Crack Down on the 'Private Education Cartel'... Is It Effective?

Private Education Companies Investigated Followed by Current Teachers
Effectiveness of 'Voluntary Reporting' Questioned
Potential Infringement on Teachers' Personal Information

The Ministry of Education has launched an investigation targeting active teachers who have been paid to create and sell 'mock killer questions' or provide lectures to private education companies. However, the education and entrance exam industries point out that the method of 'voluntary reporting' is ambiguous and may infringe on teachers' personal information.

Starting from the 1st, the Ministry of Education is accepting voluntary reports from teachers regarding their history of profit-making activities linked to private education companies. Based on these voluntary reports, if illegal profit activities connected to private education companies are confirmed, the Ministry plans to take measures such as requesting investigations and disciplinary actions. The Ministry stated, "If someone fails to report sincerely during this voluntary reporting period and is later caught during an audit, strict measures will be taken without leniency."

Earlier, on the 25th of last month, Vice Minister Jang Sang-yoon of the Ministry of Education held the '3rd Government-wide Response Council on Private Education Cartels and Corruption' and announced plans to investigate the unfair and illegal operations of large entrance exam academies and other private education companies. Based on the results of this voluntary reporting and concurrent employment approval data, guidelines for concurrent employment approval will also be prepared in the second half of this year. There is a plan to strictly prohibit teachers from providing questions for textbooks or mock exams that are exclusively offered to certain students through academy instructors.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, some criticize that the audit is being conducted without specific investigation criteria. The method of accepting 'voluntary reports' itself lacks enforceability, and the level of 'strict response' has not been determined. Regarding this, Kim Tae-hoon, head of the Ministry of Education's Private Education Countermeasures Team, told reporters the day before, "The method is to investigate those who voluntarily report later and to promote audits by the Board of Audit and Inspection," adding, "The possibility that no one will report is low."

In particular, concerns have been raised that teachers' personal information might be infringed upon. An official from the entrance exam industry said, "Conducting an investigation without any evidence of individual tax evasion or illegal activities is essentially demanding reports on teachers' private activities," and added, "It is excessive to target ordinary teachers who simply provide questions for reference to private companies."

There are also concerns that the government's direction of 'breaking up private education cartels' is exacerbating confusion in the education sector. Jung So-young, spokesperson for the National Teachers' Union, criticized, "The government is focusing only on whether cartels exist or not without addressing fundamental issues such as normalizing public education and how to handle the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)," and said, "Detecting problems in some private education companies does not seem to be significantly related to normalizing public education."

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