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What Happened
Implications: The government’s decision to proceed with the CSAT underscores the importance that Korean society places on access to higher education. Although holding the exam raised the risk of transmission because every Korean student is required to take the test on the same day, both the government and civil society considered further postponement impossible. In this environment, some provinces elevated their social distancing level ahead of the exam. In addition, regional health centers began operating 24 hours so that students could be tested for COVID-19 and isolated when taking the exam. This is in strong contrast to other countries where national exams have been entirely canceled or further postponed as global transmission rates have increased in recent weeks.
Context: Graduating from one of the top universities is one of the most important qualifications for job seekers in Korea. Correspondingly, CSAT is taken extremely seriously because universities weigh the test scores heavily in the admissions process. But the emphasis on the CSAT also created many negative social outcomes. The average Korean student undergoes 6.4 years of additional schooling versus their peers in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. This also contributes to Korean youths recording the lowest happiness rate and highest suicide rate within the OECD. As this year’s CSAT was placed in an unprecedented environment, the government expressed further concerns on students’ mental health.
Korea View was edited by Yong Kwon with the help of Sophie Joo and Chris Lee.
Photo from KBS 뷰 photostream on Wikimedia Commons.