Seoul: Police announced Thursday that 100 individuals and companies, including numerous current teachers, have been transferred to the prosecution on charges of selling questions from the annual college entrance exam.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency concluded a 20-month investigation into allegations that several teachers designed questions for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and sold them to private education companies and instructors from 2019 to 2023. The investigation led to the booking of 126 individuals and companies, with 100 of them, including 72 current teachers, being transferred for prosecution.
The remaining individuals included three private education companies, 11 instructors, nine heads or employees of private academies, and five employees or professors from the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), which administers the CSAT. Each question was reportedly sold at prices ranging from 100,000 won (approximately US$70) to 500,000 won, in sets of 20 to 30. The maximum amount a teacher received for these transactions was 260 million won, while an instructor paid as much as 550 million won for the questions.
Additionally, the NOI investigated claims that a question in the English section of the 2023 CSAT was similar to one found in a textbook authored by a well-known CSAT instructor. The instructor was discovered to have bought the question from a teacher, though no evidence showed collusion with a college professor who included the question in the 2023 exam. However, KICE faced accusations of inadequate vetting for overlaps with non-curricular textbooks, including the instructor's, and for disregarding numerous complaints regarding the similarity of the questions.
Consequently, the professor was transferred to the prosecution on suspicion of business obstruction, while the instructor and the teacher were forwarded on suspicion of violating the anti-graft law. Furthermore, three KICE employees were also forwarded to the prosecution on similar business obstruction charges.