North Gyeongsang education office steps up smart glasses response ahead of college entrance exam

The North Gyeongsang Provincial Office of Education said Wednesday it has drawn up its own response plan covering smart glasses identification, cheating determination and follow-up measures, and distributed it to schools hosting the College Scholastic Ability Test and to district control centers across the province.

Smart glasses look like ordinary eyewear but are wearable devices equipped with cameras, voice recognition and wireless communication functions.

Because they are visually indistinguishable from regular glasses, detecting cheating at exam venues is difficult.

In response, the education office has assigned one dedicated provincial supervisor to each exam site to handle all smart glasses-related duties.

These supervisors, drawn from the ranks of education officers and research officials, will be responsible not only for the routine inspection of exam operations but also for identifying smart glasses, determining whether cheating has occurred, and carrying out any necessary follow-up action.

The arrangement is intended to prevent individual proctoring teachers from bearing sole responsibility for judgment calls and handling complaints, and to reduce confusion that could arise on the ground.

Procedures have also been standardized to ensure consistent criteria across all exam sites and to enable swift responses.

The plan draws on two sets of guidance the Ministry of Education issued in quick succession — a smart glasses response plan announced Oct. 30 and a notice on sanctions for cheating using smart devices issued Friday.

The education office had already designated the dedicated supervisory role at a CSAT briefing on Oct. 30, and has since established its own step-by-step response criteria.

"Cheating with high-tech devices undermines trust among test-takers and damages the fairness of the examination," said Im Jong-sik, superintendent of education for North Gyeongsang Province. "We will thoroughly review the response system at each exam site so that students can focus on the test without facing any disadvantage or confusion."