Normalization of Public Education: Tackling ‘Killer Questions’ and the Debate on Education Reform

2023-06-23 23:05:00


After President Yoon Seok-yeol instructed to exclude the so-called ‘killer questions’ (super-difficulty problems) from the SAT, the plan to ‘normalize public education’ is emerging as a hot topic in the political world.

Both the ruling and opposition parties agree on the purpose of ‘normalizing public education’, but there is a great difference of opinion on the plan to normalize public education due to differences in educational ideology or interests with related organizations.

In particular, the government and the ruling party are arguing that the private education cartel should be destroyed, but the opposition party is fighting that that is not the essence.

However, the discussion on the ‘normalization of public education’ is only recently receiving attention, and it did not start suddenly.

Entering the 21st National Assembly, bills related to the normalization of public education have been steadily proposed, regardless of opposition lawmakers such as Rep. Lee Ju-hwan of the People’s Power or Democratic Party of Korea Min-jung Kang and Dong-yong Seo of the Democratic Party.

Among these, the most representative discussion has been the ‘Public Education Normalization Act Amendment Bill’ proposed in 2021 by Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Min-jung.

■ Rep. Kang Min-jung proposed the ‘killer question prevention law’… Last year, the Ministry of Education took the opposite position

The key point of the amendment is to prevent ‘killer questions’ by ▲submitting CSAT questions only within the curriculum, ▲imposing and collecting fines for academies that advertised prior learning, and ▲preliminarily determining whether the CSAT triggers prior learning. It is regarding conducting an impact assessment.

The preliminary impact assessment on private education, which is currently applied only to college-specific exams such as essay writing and interviews, is also applied to the CSAT, and fines are imposed if academies advertise or promote prior learning, so that questions outside the curriculum are not presented.

At the time this bill was proposed, it was also called the ‘killer question prevention law’.

However, when the revision was reviewed by the Education Committee’s bill subcommittee in September last year, the Ministry of Education denied the existence of the killer question, saying, “Even now, the CSAT is being presented within the curriculum,” and objected, saying, “It is difficult to realistically introduce a prior impact evaluation system.” expressed.

In the end, the legislative discussion of the Public Education Normalization Act did not make much progress in the National Assembly.

■ “Reflection on the reversal of the previous position”… The Ministry of Education acknowledged the existence of killer questions

The situation has changed since President Seok-Yeol Yoon ordered the exclusion of ‘killer questions’.

Yesterday (23rd), at the subcommittee of the National Assembly Education Committee, Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon acknowledged the existence of killer questions and announced his position that he would only present questions within the curriculum.

At the same time, Vice Minister Jang is reported to have said, “I will reflect on reversing my previous position.”

However, they still expressed their opposition to applying the preliminary impact assessment, which measures whether private education is triggered, to the CSAT.

In a phone call with Democratic Party member Kang Min-jeong, “The law reviewed last year and the law reviewed today are the same law, but the president said a word 180 degrees differently.” .

At the same time, Rep. Kang criticized the government’s attitude, saying, “Education should not be approached as a political issue.”

In response, Vice Minister of Education Jang Sang-yoon said in a phone call with KBS, “(The objection in September of last year) was the intention that just because the difficulty of the CSAT questions is high, it is not considered a killer question.” He said he was reflecting on the time he saw it.”

Regarding the reason for objecting to the preliminary impact assessment, “(to conduct the preliminary impact assessment), it is necessary to review the questions presented in a separate organization, but security and management become difficult,” and the principle that the CSAT questions should be presented within the curriculum He said he was in favor of stipulating it in the law.

The Education Committee of the National Assembly held a subcommittee once more in early July and decided to continue reviewing related bills, including the amendment.

‘Excluding killer questions’ The Ministry of Education, which was wrong then but is right now, seems to have to keep an eye on what it will say in early July.

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