2 weeks Ago By Korea Bizwire
A student strolls through the cram school district of Daechi-dong in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea, absorbed in a book. (Image courtesy of Yonhap) SEOUL, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Police said Thursday they have transferred 100 people and companies, including many current teachers, to the prosecution on suspicion of selling questions on the annual college entrance exam. The National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency announced the result after wrapping up a 20-month investigation into allegations that dozens of teachers designed questions for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and sold them to private education companies or instructors between 2019 and 2023.
Police said they booked 126 people and companies and transferred 100 of them to the prosecution, including 72 current teachers. The rest consisted of three private education companies, 11 instructors, nine heads or employees of private academies and five employees or professors of the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), which administers the CSAT. Police said each question was priced at between 100,000 won (US$70) and 500,000 won, and sold in sets of 20 to 30.
The most a teacher received in exchange for the questions was 260 million won, while the most an instructor paid for the questions was 550 million won, according to the police. The NOI also announced the results of its investigation into suspicions a question in the English language portion of the 2023 CSAT was similar to a question published in a textbook written by a famous CSAT instructor. Police said the instructor was found to have purchased the question from a teacher but that no evidence was found to suggest collusion among the two and a college professor who included the question in the 2023 CSAT.
However, they accused KICE of poorly vetting for overlaps with non-curricular textbooks, including the one written by the famous instructor. In addition, KICE was accused of ignoring multiple complaints pointing to the similarity between the questions. The professor was transferred to the prosecution on suspicion of obstruction of business, while the instructor and the teacher were forwarded on suspicion of violating the anti-graft law, police said.
Three KICE employees were also forwarded to the prosecution on suspicion of obstruction of business. (Yonhap).
