'The college entrance exam as an essay test?' Education community split over plan to overhaul Suneung

South Korea's education community is sharply divided over a proposal to introduce essay and short-answer questions to the College Scholastic Ability Test, known as the Suneung. Supporters argue the exam must move away from its multiple-choice format toward written expression, while critics warn the change could fuel private tutoring and throw classrooms into disarray.

Three education advocacy groups — Education Spring, No More Worries About Private Education, and the Good Teachers Movement — held a joint press conference Tuesday urging the government to enshrine a phased transition to essay- and short-answer-based assessment, covering both the Suneung and school-based grades, in the National Education Development Plan. In the AI era, they said, the ability to define problems, marshal evidence and articulate one's thinking logically matters far more than quickly selecting a given answer — and the current Suneung, they argued, has locked schools into a structure that reduces classroom instruction to test-prep drills.

The three groups said that without a change in assessment format, reforms to the curriculum and classroom instruction would remain limited. "Education follows the assessment at the final gate," they said. "Even if schools expand discussion-based and project-based classes and introduce essay assessments, the structure that requires students to sit a multiple-choice Suneung in their final year of high school will ultimately pull everything back toward test-prep."

On concerns about grading fairness and a potential surge in private tutoring, the groups proposed building a national-level system — establishing an assessment management center, requiring multiple graders, publishing scoring criteria and training specialist graders to improve reliability, while simultaneously reforming the relative-grading system and strengthening writing and critical-thinking instruction within public schools.

Acknowledging that private tutoring could still increase, the groups said the current relative-grading system and university-administered essay exams must also be reformed in tandem. "Telling parents that wide reading alone is sufficient preparation will not ease their anxiety," they said, calling for a phased rollout with ample lead time, including pilot schools and trial regions.

The Korea Federation of Teachers' Associations pushed back against the National Education Committee's discussions on introducing essay questions to the Suneung and converting to absolute grading. "Given the wide educational and social ramifications, this must be approached with the utmost caution, grounded in thorough review and broad social consensus," the federation said.

The federation also challenged the process itself, noting that even within the National Education Committee, members had raised concerns that discussions on reforming the university admissions system were reported after the fact rather than deliberated in advance. It also warned of the impact any admissions overhaul would have on schools. "Every time a controversy over admissions reform erupts, parents and teachers are flooded with anxiety about how they are supposed to prepare and guide students all over again," the federation said, urging that the realistic conditions of actual schools and the potential for unintended consequences be examined before expected benefits.

Kang Ju-ho, chairman of the federation, said the National Education Committee "was established to develop long-term national education policy that would not be swayed by changes in administration or political circumstances," and called on it to "moderate the pace of reform and reflect a balanced range of views."

The same divide is visible inside the National Education Committee itself. Chairperson Cha Jeong-in has consistently advocated for expanding essay and short-answer assessment. In a presidential briefing Aug. 5, Cha said "repeated drilling on multiple-choice questions has limits when it comes to developing critical thinking and creativity," and that "essay and short-answer questions should be introduced to the Suneung to drive change in the direction of classroom instruction and learning."

Within the committee, however, open dissent over the pace and approach of the reform emerged at a plenary session held Aug. 13. Most members said they agreed on the need to reform the university admissions system but raised concerns about the representativeness of the opinion-gathering process and the method of public deliberation — particularly over the speed at which essay-question reforms were being pushed.

Committee member Son Deok-je said it was premature to simultaneously discuss converting both school-based grades and the Suneung to absolute grading and introducing essay questions "at a time when the high school credit system and the five-tier school grading system have only just been implemented, before their side effects have even been assessed." He said the feasibility and real-world applicability of the proposals must be examined first.

Committee member Yeon Chwi-hyeon also criticized the process, saying it appeared the committee had "already set a direction and is now seeking opinions to support it," warning that the approach risked deepening anxiety among parents and teachers.

The National Education Committee plans to hold regional public forums, deliberation sessions with citizen-participation members and online opinion surveys this month before drafting a preliminary proposal for admissions reform in October. After a further round of public consultation, the committee is set to finalize the direction of the overhaul alongside the National Education Development Plan in March next year.