South Korean students sue government for US$15,000 each for ending college admissions exam 90 seconds early
Thirty-nine students have filed a lawsuit against the government after an invigilator at Kyungdong High School mistakenly clicked on the ending bell before an exam on November 16 was scheduled to end, per local news outlet Yonhap.
According to the report, each student is demanding about US$15,000 in compensation.
The school did try to rectify their error by giving the students back their papers for 90 seconds during lunchtime, per Yonhap.
Is South Korea’s war on ‘killer’ exam questions an answer to student stress?
Is South Korea’s war on ‘killer’ exam questions an answer to student stress?
Candidates, however, were only allowed to fill in their solutions for unsolved questions. They weren’t allowed to amend the responses to questions they had solved earlier.
According to Yonhap’s report, the students claimed they were badly affected by the disruption they had faced.
Students said the re-test administered during lunchtime provided little relief, as it ate into their break and distracted them from their subsequent paper. Some even headed home because they had given up on the exam.
South Korea’s highly competitive college admission exams, known locally as the suneung, are a rite of passage for students gunning for the country’s top colleges.
Some South Korean students would even retake the test a couple of times to secure admission into their dream universities.
South Korea’s government also implements special measures to accommodate test takers.
Every year, the government halts or reroutes flights during the exams to reduce distractions. Students who are running late can request a police escort to get them to the exam venue.
