Korean Job Discussion Forums

[garykasparov]

Teachers Banned From Making Test Questions for Hagwon

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/nation_view.asp?newsIdx=21176&categoryCode=117

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Teachers will be banned from drawing up test questions for private tutoring institutes, or hagwon. Some elite school teachers have participated in making questions for cram schools that help students prepare for admission to specialized schools, such as science or foreign language high schools.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said it will not allow schoolteachers to make mock test questions for elite school entrance. Those who violate the rule will face sanctions.

The move follows a series of leaks of test questions from schools amid alleged illicit relationships between schoolteachers and hagwon.

``If elite schoolteachers make pilot test questions for cram schools, students attending those private institutes could be unfairly advantaged,�� said an official from the education office.

Earlier, the education office also banned elite schoolteachers from participating in explanatory entrance sessions at cram schools.

It is no secret that some hagwon and elite schools have maintained corrupt relations.

Some schoolteachers are suspected of being involved with the recent leak of the nationwide high school exam to private institutes. Some of the math questions in the test were found to be identical to those at a cram school in southern Seoul. Police are investigating the case.

Meanwhile, the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations asked education authorities to regularly compare school exams and mock tests from cram schools.

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[spliff]

Seems to me it would be pretty hard to enforce. But whatever, less work for whitey.

[pkang0202]

What is en elite school and an elite school teacher? I didn't know there were "elite" level public schools in SMOE.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[spliff]

I think they are referring to "elite" cram schools/hogwons.

[Saxiif]

This is stupid, the whole problem is that the public school English tests are so incredibly predictable that anyone who's smart can predict with excellent accuracy what kind of questions they'll have. My (Korean) wife did this for years, it's not too hard...

[tob55]

If memory serves me, the whole problem with the test fiasco had nothing to do with foreign teachers in the first place. The problem began when someone who was supposed to deliver a test decided to give a copy of it to their child who quickly circulated it among their friends. The mother and several other Korean teachers/administrators were punished for this and it is now causing the same knee jerk reaction to somehow link foreign educators to the bad conduct and behavior of Korean educators who haven't learned the rules about what is proper and decent in their professional practices.

[Saxiif]

[laogaiguk]

[bassexpander]

They're going after the public school teachers