1,400 students skip standardized tests

From: The Korea Herald | Apr. 01, 2009
By: Kim So-hyun

Hundreds of students including 67 in Seoul were estimated to have dodged standardized exams administered nationwide yesterday, repeating what led to a dismissal of 12 school teachers late last year.

Despite warnings by education authorities to punish teachers who do not cooperate with the testing, members of a progressive teachers' union gave the students a choice not to take the exams.

The Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union revealed the names of 122 teachers who sent letters to parents asking them if they wanted their children to take the standardized tests.

Those who got permission from their parents to skip yesterday's tests for fourth, fifth, sixth graders and middle school students went on field trips instead.

Since last year, the KTU and several parents' groups have opposed nationwide standardized testing, or what they call "universal tests," claiming the excessive pressure they put on schools to excel in the exams distorts education.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education had ordered schools to not allow members of the KTU to preside over the exams yesterday.

"All of those who are found to have clearly obstructed the evaluation will be punished regardless of how many there are," an SMOE official said.

The city's education authorities plan to look into whether the KTU teachers who sent the letters to the parents instigated them to boycott the tests.

A great number of students also involved themselves in the boycotting.

A group of students opposing the standardized tests said that over 5,800 of its members agreed to turn in blank test papers yesterday.

The students were tested on Korean, social studies, math, science and English yesterday. The scores will not be unveiled and the students will be informed next month whether they have reached the basic proficiency levels in each subject.