Education Committee audit sees clash over ‘essay- and written-response CSAT’

[Financial News] On the 7th, at the National Assembly Education Committee’s parliamentary audit, lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties sharply criticized the National Education Commission’s (NEC) plans to introduce essay- and written-response assessments for the college entrance exam, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), and expand school-based assessment. The agencies under audit responded to the criticism. Lawmakers focused on concerns over surging private education costs, grading fairness, inadequate work reports and policy confusion.

From the start of the parliamentary audit, lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties jointly protested the National Education Commission’s inadequate reporting as an agency under audit. At the morning session, People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Seong-guk pointed out that the NEC’s work report was only three pages long and formally protested, saying, “There isn’t a single line on the results of public hearings or the progress of major issues drawing intense debate in the education community and public attention, such as written-response and essay-based assessments and a 3 p.m. dismissal system.”
Education Committee Chair Kim Hui-jeong, who presided over the audit, and committee members from both ruling and opposition parties also expressed deep regret over the NEC’s work report, which omitted key issues, and directed the commission to resubmit a detailed report.

In the questioning that followed, the risks of a surge in private education costs resulting from the introduction of written-response and essay-based assessments, along with practical limitations on grading fairness, came under scrutiny.
People Power Party lawmaker Jang Dong-hyeok criticized the plan, saying, “The idea that changing only the CSAT assessment method, without reforming school curricula and teaching methods or public education, will develop critical thinking or reduce private education costs is wishful thinking.” He added, “It is certain to undermine objectivity and fairness, the most important values in the college entrance exam, and only send private education costs soaring.”
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Jun-hyeok also cited statistics to point to the private education sector’s sensitive response. “The mere announcement that universities would reintroduce essay-based admissions caused private tutoring costs for high school students to jump by at least 30 billion won,” he said, adding, “We need to face the gap between ideals and reality.”
Kim also took issue with the technical limitations of introducing AI grading. “I question whether parents can accept the errors and uncertainty reflected in the agreement rate (0.8) between teachers’ grading and AI grading,” he said. He warned that “disputes over fairness will continue, including errors that may arise when optical character recognition (OCR) technology is used to convert students’ poor handwriting into text.”

In response to this barrage of criticism, National Education Commission Chair Cha Jeong-in offered an explanation, emphasizing that introducing written-response and essay-based assessments is a long-term education reform task.
Chair Cha explained the rationale for considering written-response and essay-based assessments, saying, “A system relying solely on five-option multiple-choice tests clearly has limitations in developing the higher-order thinking skills and capabilities of children who will live in the future.”
Responding to concerns about surging private education costs, he said, “Students rely heavily on private academies for essay exams administered by individual universities because schools do not prepare them for those exams. The NEC’s plan, however, is to expand written-response and essay-based assessment starting with school grades and create a system in which public education can adequately prepare students.”
On concerns about grading technology and fairness, he explained, “AI grading tools serve as an aid to improve the consistency of skilled graders, and the system displays answers that OCR has difficulty reading so that a person can read them directly.”
Chair Cha said, “Written-response and essay-based assessment is not something that can be resolved in one to two years. It will be pursued once public trust has been secured, following a lengthy preparation period in consultation with the Ministry of Education and metropolitan and provincial offices of education on efforts including training specialized graders and improving teachers’ expertise.”

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter