Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union "70% of high school teachers oppose introduction of written and essay type CSAT"

94% “There is a high possibility of expanding private education”… “We cannot proceed without gathering opinions from the field.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Noh Jae-hyun = A survey showed that 7 out of 10 high school teachers are opposed to the introduction of written and essay-type assessments in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

On the 7th, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) announced the ‘Teacher Perception Survey Report on the High School Evaluation System and College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) written and essay type evaluation’ containing these contents.

According to the results of an online survey conducted by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union from the 21st of last month to the 2nd of this month, 70.4% (947 people) of the 1,346 teachers from 16 cities and provinces who responded were opposed to the introduction of the written/essay format for the CSAT.

‘Strongly opposed’ was 52.6% (708 people), more than half, and ‘generally opposed’ was 17.8% (239 people).

On the other hand, only 15.1% (203 people) agreed, and 14.6% (196 people) reserved judgment.

In addition, it was found that many high school teachers view the educational effects of written and essay-type CSAT assessments negatively.

31.9% (430 people) of respondents responded that there was a high possibility of improving their thinking and logical expression skills, but 42.5% (572 people) responded that the possibility was low, which was more than 10 percentage points (p) higher.

Regarding the possibility of change in classes centered on memorization and problem solving, 44.6% (600 people) responded that 'the effect would be low', which was more than the response that 'the effect would be high' (32.2%).

Among the responding high school teachers, 94.3% (1,269 people) predicted that there was a high possibility that private education would expand through written and essay-type CSAT assessments.

93.0% (1,252 people) were concerned about controversy over the fairness and reliability of grading and the widening gap in education.

Regarding the greatest difficulty in the current evaluation work (select a maximum of 2 out of 6 questions), the burden of complaints surrounding the fairness and objectivity of evaluation was the largest at 75.6% (1,017 people).

Based on the results of this survey, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union demanded from the Ministry of Education and the National Education Commission, "The introduction of written and essay type CSATs should not be promoted without sufficient verification and collection of opinions from the field. Teachers' evaluation rights should be guaranteed and an organized response system should be established for evaluation-related complaints and disputes."