Seoul Education Office Took Precautions Against Cheating

Korea is really shaken by the largest ever student cheating scandal which occured last week, involving nearly 100 students who used their cell phones to relay answers by text messaging during the national college entrance exam. Officials and teachers are laying the blame on each other for letting this occur and soul searching too.

The JoongAng Daily has even published an article entitled "Cheating has long, ignoble history here" which is fascinating, going back as far as as a civil service examination held in 1800, where 112'000 applicants took the test. Explaining that historically "heated competition has always meant temptation for dishonesty".

According to an article today in Dong-A Ilbo education offices in Seoul took measure before the tests, raising the awareness lvel over cheating on the CSAT and stepping up alerts.

"Some concerned education offices even conducted special education regarding the possible cheating scheme by directly bringing in guidance counselors from each high school before the day of exam, or sending official documents to step up alerts."

Others received conference material. According to the Gwangju Office of Education, “official documents requesting attention to cheating were considered usual procedure at this time of the year, so most didn't pay much attention. The concerned education authorities and schools should have tried harder to directly convey clear messages to examiners,” said a person associated with a school in Gwangju."

cf previous post Students held for (Text Message) exam scam

emily | 4:29 PM | SMS and Students |
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