The government will change how and when final application-to-seat ratios are disclosed and will randomize application numbers starting with this year's regular admissions round, aiming to eliminate advantages or disadvantages for applicants depending on when they file.
Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin told a parliamentary audit at the National Assembly's Education Committee on the 23rd that the ministry will improve the disclosure method and timing so that final ratios are not released while applications remain open, in case of another system failure. "We aim to introduce a new application number format for this regular admissions round that makes it impossible to infer competition ratios, raising the fairness of the application system," he said.
On the application system itself, Choi said the ministry will prepare detailed improvement measures and a plan to strengthen public oversight for a shift to public management by December, before the regular admissions round begins. "We will manage this thoroughly so that the confusion is never repeated," he said. He added that the ministry confirmed the access failure occurred because of technical compatibility problems between key software programs when the contractor installed a new server operating system this year. "We assess the fundamental causes of this incident to be inadequate advance verification and testing covering a range of failure scenarios during the installation of the new server operating system, and the contractor's failure to prepare a specific response framework for failure situations in advance," he said.
The ministry will upgrade its failure response manual and make failure-prevention procedures mandatory. "We will clarify the role of each organization in preventing and responding to failures, and make reporting channels clear when an incident occurs," Choi said. "We will standardize the functions and specifications of equipment operated by both contractors, make preventive procedures such as overload testing mandatory, and set out in detail how deadlines are extended and how the public is informed under each type of failure."
On the overhaul of local education grants, Choi said the ministry will strictly manage what he described as populist or cash-handout programs run by some provincial education offices, including by imposing penalties on ordinary grant allocations.
On the project to build 10 universities on par with Seoul National University, he said the ministry will communicate with the National Assembly on additional funding during budget deliberations. "We will strengthen cooperation across ministries to build a virtuous cycle in which students enroll and settle in the regions as well," he said.
The National Education Commission said it will push back the release of the draft of its 10-year mid- to long-term national education development plan from the end of this month to the end of this year. Chairman Cha Jung-in said the commission will gather a range of views on detailed agenda items related to essay and short-answer assessment through public deliberation procedures, including expert forums. "We will continue in-depth discussions on the future direction of the college admissions system," he said. "Following recommendations from a majority of commissioners that sufficient consultation with related agencies and gathering of public opinion are needed, we reached a consensus to adjust the timing of the plan's announcement. We will do our best over the remaining period to produce a well-developed draft of the mid- to long-term national education development plan and meet the expectations of the public."
On Chinese character reference materials for teachers aimed at improving literacy, Choi said the ministry confirmed that such materials are needed and that sufficient preparation is required to make them better suited to classroom use. "We will gather views more broadly from experts and teachers in the field and review the matter closely so that highly usable materials can be presented," he said.