Rang 1 Minute Early and Ruined It... Examinees Demand "20 Million Won Compensation for Retaking"

39 Victims from Seoul Gyeongdong High School File Class Action Lawsuit

On the day of the 2024 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), an incident occurred at the Kyungdong High School test site in Seoul where the end bell rang early. As a result, the affected examinees filed a class-action lawsuit against the education authorities.

An error occurred during the time-checking process causing the early bell incident... "Did not use the Ministry of Education-issued device," claim

According to the legal community on the 19th, Myungjin Law Firm, representing the students of Kyungdong High School in Seoul, plans to file a complaint at the Seoul Central District Court seeking 20 million KRW in damages per person from the state on behalf of 39 examinees affected by the early bell incident during the CSAT.

Myungjin Law Firm pointed out that more than a month has passed since the early bell incident, but the education authorities have neither apologized to the affected students nor provided an explanation of the incident’s circumstances or measures to prevent recurrence.

Earlier, on the 16th of last month, during the first period Korean language test at Kyungdong High School in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, the test end bell rang 1 minute and 30 seconds early.

Myungjin’s side believes that teacher A, who was responsible for ringing the bell, made a mistake by misreading the time while turning the screen of a mobile device back on after it had turned off midway.

Additionally, based on testimonies from students and parents, they claim that teacher A used a personal mobile device instead of the Ministry of Education-issued equipment to check the bell-ringing time.

Kyungdong High School was using a manual bell-ringing system. During the CSAT, there are both automatic and manual bell-ringing methods, and many test sites choose manual ringing to avoid broadcasting system errors.

Immediately after the early bell incident, students strongly protested, saying there was still time left, but the test papers were collected without granting additional time.

Rushed to mark answers anywhere due to the bell ringing 1 minute 30 seconds early... "No corrections allowed"

A student is lying face down while self-scoring the CSAT exam. The photo is not directly related to the content of the article.

Later, after realizing the mistake, the school redistributed the first period Korean language test papers to the examinees after the second period ended. Students were then given 1 minute and 30 seconds to solve problems and record answers, but corrections on the answer sheets were not permitted. Since students might have checked the correct answers during the break, only the transfer of answers marked on the test papers to the answer sheets was allowed.

Students claimed that the additional time was given during the lunch break after the second period ended, and that the entire process?including distributing test papers, the 1 minute 30 seconds of extra time, and collection?took about 25 minutes.

Since the lunch break was originally supposed to be 50 minutes, students could only rest for 25 minutes, which caused them to suffer disadvantages in the following tests as well.

They also said that because they had to take the remaining tests while conscious of having ruined the first period exam due to the early bell incident, they could not perform at their usual level.

It was also reported that some students gave up the exam and went home.

According to the Ministry of Education and others, when an early bell incident occurs during the CSAT, the school principal and the city/provincial education office consult to decide how to respond on site.

"No response manual even after early bell incident 3 years ago... Compensate for 1 year of retaking costs"

However, Kim Wooseok, lead attorney at Myungjin Law Firm, emphasized, "Even though an early bell incident occurred three years ago, the Ministry of Education has not distributed a concrete manual to prevent such incidents. They must prepare measures to prevent recurrence in the future and compensate the affected students for at least one year of retaking costs."

Meanwhile, in December 2020, at the Deokwon Girls' High School test site in Gangseo-gu, an incident occurred where the end bell rang about 3 minutes early during the first elective subject of the fourth period inquiry section of the CSAT.

As a result, 25 examinees and parents claimed that they could not properly solve the problems due to the unexpected situation and filed a lawsuit against the state and Seoul city, seeking 8 million KRW in damages per person.

The court ruled in the second trial in April that the state must pay 7 million KRW per person.

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