Ministry of Education Identifies 24 Teachers Who Provided Problem Sets to Hagwon for CSAT... Filing Complaints and Requesting Investigation

'Prevention of Private Education Cartel' Voluntary Report Received
Obstruction of CSAT Operations, Violation of Prohibition on Receiving Money, etc.

The Ministry of Education has filed complaints and requested investigations against 24 active teachers with experience in creating questions for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and mock evaluations, who voluntarily reported engaging in profit-making activities with private education companies.

On the 19th, the Ministry of Education announced this at the 4th Government-wide Response Council on Private Education Cartels and Corruption, held at the Government Sejong Complex and chaired by Deputy Minister Jang Sang-yoon. Related agencies including the Fair Trade Commission, National Police Agency, Military Manpower Administration, and metropolitan and provincial offices of education attended the meeting.

The Ministry operated a voluntary reporting period for profit-making activities linked to private education companies by teachers from the 1st to the 14th of last month, receiving a total of 322 voluntary reports. Subsequently, cross-verification was conducted between these names and the lists of participants in CSAT and mock evaluation question creation since the 2017 academic year. As a result, it was decided to jointly file complaints and request investigations with the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation against 24 active teachers.

The Ministry will immediately file complaints against four teachers who concealed previous question sales and participated in question creation on charges of obstructing CSAT operations. Additionally, 22 teachers suspected of selling questions and receiving large sums of money after participating in question creation will be referred for investigation on charges of violating the Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Graft and the Act on the Establishment, Operation, and Fostering of Government-Funded Research Institutions, specifically for violating obligations to prohibit receiving money and maintaining confidentiality. The 22 teachers referred for investigation on charges of violating the Improper Solicitation Act, as well as 21 private education companies involved in question transactions, will also be subject to investigation on the same charges.

Jang Sang-yoon, Vice Minister of Education, is briefing on the results of the 4th Government-wide Response Council on Private Education Cartels and Corruption at the Government Sejong Complex in Sejong City on the afternoon of the 19th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

In addition, to enhance the fairness of the CSAT, the Ministry of Education will exclude question sellers from private education companies when forming the question creation team for the 2024 CSAT, in consultation with the Board of Audit and Inspection, which is currently conducting related audits. Furthermore, the Ministry plans to prepare institutional improvement measures by the second half of this year to completely exclude question sellers from private education companies from participating in question creation starting from next year’s CSAT and mock evaluations.

At the meeting, follow-up measures by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Military Manpower Administration were also discussed. The Ministry of Science and ICT, in consultation with the Military Manpower Administration, has restricted the assignment recommendations of specialized research personnel to related private education companies. The Military Manpower Administration confirmed through an on-site investigation that the specialized research personnel in question were engaged in tasks such as writing Korean CSAT mock test passages, which are unrelated to their original field of program development at the time of transfer.

Deputy Minister Jang Sang-yoon of the Ministry of Education stated, "The private education cartel, pointed out by the President, has already secretly taken root, threatening the fairness of the CSAT and further undermining the fairness of military service obligations for the younger generation. The Ministry of Education will continue to focus its efforts on eradicating this chronic private education cartel in cooperation with related agencies and will actively cooperate with the ongoing audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection."

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