Graduates of Honam Sahmyook Middle School file an administrative lawsuit over the exclusion of local talent from medical schools

Request for cancellation of admissions plan against Chonnam National University

(Jeonnam Gwangju = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang A-reum = Graduates of Honam Sahmyook Middle School filed an administrative lawsuit in opposition to the exclusion of graduates from 'various schools' from the local talent selection process for the 2028 school year and the local doctor selection process for the 2027 school year.

According to the legal community on the 2nd, seven second-year high school students from Honam Sahmyook Middle School recently filed a lawsuit against the president of Chonnam National University, requesting cancellation of part of the university admissions process plan.

The students argued that it was unfair and had no legal basis to suddenly be discriminated against in college admissions just because the type of establishment was different under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act even though they had completed middle school courses that were recognized as academic qualifications like regular middle schools.

The students' legal representative said, "According to the Act on the Development of Balanced Talents in Local Universities and Regions, the requirement for selecting local talent in the field of medicine is 'graduation from a middle school located in a region other than the metropolitan area.'" He added, "However, Chonnam National University limited it to middle schools stipulated in Article 2 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in its college admissions plan for the 2028 school year."

He added, "As Chonnam National University applied the guidelines of the Korean Council for University Education, which were established only after students graduated, graduates from various schools with recognized academic qualifications were excluded, and students were unable to apply for the selection process that selects 138 out of 163 students for the 2028 class of Chonnam National University's Department of Medicine."

It was claimed that even with regard to the selection process for local doctors for the 2027 school year, restrictions on the type of schools not stipulated by the law on training and support of local doctors were applied.

The legal representative pointed out, “There is no provision in either law that limits middle schools to middle schools (general middle schools) under Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,” and “According to the Local University Promotion Act, high schools are limited to high schools under Article 2 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.”

These students also plan to pursue a lawsuit against Chosun University and urge the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to improve the system.

The government strengthened the support criteria for local talent selection, which was possible by attending three years of high school at a local school, to six years from middle school from the 2028 school year, and added this proviso when establishing a new local doctor selection process.

In this process, various schools were excluded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and only general middle schools were covered. As students and parents of Sahmyook Middle School, including Yeonghonam, which are various schools, protested, the Ministry of Education began reviewing it.