A total of 155 instructors who teach regular classes at arts high schools in South Korea also worked at private cram schools, an audit found. Forty-seven professors in university dance departments served as evaluators for college entrance practical exams without disclosing that they had taught or graded arts high school students.
The Board of Audit and Inspection released the findings of its audit of arts high school operations and management on the 14th. The audit, conducted at the request of the National Assembly in December last year, examined the 10 largest arts high schools by enrollment, reviewing ties among the schools, cram schools and universities as well as how admissions are run.
Of the 2,522 instructors teaching regular classes at the 10 schools as of last year, 155, or 6.1%, at nine of the schools held concurrent jobs as cram school instructors. Twelve of them used their arts high school positions to promote cram schools. Five promoted cram schools using the college admission records of students they had taught at the arts high schools rather than at the cram schools, conduct that may constitute false advertising under the law governing private education institutes.
Fifty-five of the 155 instructors worked at 47 cram schools where 216 arts high school students were enrolled. "When instructors teaching regular school classes also work at cram schools, it can create a grading structure that favors cram school students and undermine fairness in public education," the board said.
The board attributed the problem to lax oversight by education authorities. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has guidelines barring instructors from working at both schools and cram schools, but three arts high schools did not incorporate them into employment contracts. A fourth school included the provision but did not enforce the restriction. The Gyeonggi and Busan offices of education had not drawn up such guidelines at all.
The audit also identified cases that could compromise fairness in university practical admission tests. The board reviewed the teaching records of 104 faculty members in dance departments at 32 universities nationwide and found that 47 had taken part in grading internal assessments or mock practical exams, or had given special lectures, to third-year students at eight arts high schools between 2023 and 2025. They later served as evaluators for dance practical entrance exams at 19 universities in the greater Seoul area without reporting those teaching records.
In one case last year, three professors who twice helped grade internal practical assessments for third-year Korean dance students at an arts high school also served as evaluators for entrance exams at five universities that same year. Applicants from that school were admitted to four of the five universities without exception. Another professor took part in internal practical assessments at a particular arts high school for three consecutive years and then awarded the highest score among evaluators to a successful applicant from that school.
Because those records went unreported, the board said, the universities had no opportunity to consider excluding the faculty members from admissions evaluations. Forty-two of the 47 professors also failed to report their outside lectures as required under the law banning improper solicitation and graft.
The board asked the Seoul, Gyeonggi and Busan offices of education to take steps to restrict arts high school instructors from working at cram schools, and told the Seoul and Gyeonggi offices to prepare appropriate measures, including administrative penalties against cram schools found to have run false advertising. It also asked the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to prepare measures commensurate with the severity of the violations for the 47 university faculty members who failed to meet reporting requirements.