S.Korea mulls tweaking college entrance exam to cut education expenses

By Esra Tekin

ISTANBUL (AA) - In an effort to reduce private education expenses, the South Korean government announced on Monday that it will exclude highly difficult "killer" questions from the annual college entrance exam, according to local media.

The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), also known as Suneung, has come under scrutiny for including questions that many argue can only be solved with tutoring from private cram schools, known as "hagwons" in Korean.

"If we want to enter a good university, we need to be able to solve these killer questions, and if we are going to do so, we need to first go to hagwons. This is such an abnormal situation,” an unnamed official at the presidential office told Seoul-based Yonhap News.

The CSAT has sparked significant controversy in South Korea, particularly following a recent directive from President Yoon Suk Yeol's office, stating that exam content not taught in schools should be removed.

The announcement resulted in uncertainty surrounding the upcoming exam only a few months away. However, the president's office later clarified that the instruction did not indicate making the exam easier.

The Education Ministry is scheduled to announce plans to strengthen public education on Wednesday, followed by a set of measures to reduce private education spending on June 27.