CEO Jang Dong-hyuk holds an emergency meeting with parents and test takers... “Government Responsibility”

CEO Jang Dong-hyuk holds an emergency meeting with parents and test takers... “Government Responsibility”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Hee-won and Cho Daun = On the 17th, Jang Dong-hyuk, representative of the People Power Party, called for the resignation of Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin, saying, "It is a predicted 'talent' and the government is entirely responsible," regarding the 'failure' in the application reception for the 2027 college entrance exam.

On this day, Representative Jang held an emergency meeting at the National Assembly with Lim Ja, Chairman of the Policy Committee, and Rep. Kim Hee-jung, Chairman of the National Assembly Education Committee, and said, "The government does not seem to have the will to find a proper remedy or the ability to rescue students."

Representative Jang criticized, “We should have foreseen that the system could malfunction due to the greater number of applications received this year than in other years,” and added, “Even though the same problem occurred the day before, the government and the Korean Council for University Education (Korea University Education Association) just ignored it.”

Representative Jang pointed out, "During the last June 3 local elections, there was an incident where people could not vote due to a lack of ballot papers, and this time, the server that accepts college entrance applications was even stopped. The reason something like this should never happen is because it is almost impossible to find a way to remedy it after the fact."

He continued, “This is something that should not have happened, but at least there should have been a ‘Plan B’ on what to do and when the competition rate will be announced.” He asked, “How can the country and government compensate if you do not get into the university you want or if something unfair happens during the application process and the outcome changes?”

Representative Jang emphasized, “The truth of this situation must be clearly identified, and the Minister of Education must take responsibility and resign,” and added, “We must quickly come up with a plan to improve the system so that the public system can take responsibility for the management of entrance exams.”

Policy Committee Chairman Lim said, "Based on the opinions of parents at the meeting and the cases of damage in the field, the 'College Admissions Fairness Task Force' will prepare practical measures. We will thoroughly inspect the application reception system and emergency response system to prevent the same incident from occurring again."

Gyu-cheol Han, who attended the meeting on this day as a parent representative, demanded the cancellation of all applications received after 6 p.m. and the disclosure of the emergency response manual and final competition rate that served as the basis for extending the application time.

Mr. Han said, "Students who rushed to find and apply to universities or departments they had not even thought of applying to on 'Admission App' for fear of being unable to submit only 6 applications due to the server crashing at 5:50 p.m. and applying, and students who were unable to apply due to server issues but were given the opportunity to reapply after checking the competition rate are all not on equal terms."

Yoo Young-jun (18), a high school senior, argued, "I am against the idea of ​​re-application, but I think it is right to only cancel applications after 6 o'clock because students who have already applied to places with low competition will suffer."

5-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won also held a press conference with a parents' group at the National Assembly on this day and said, "The failure to apply for regular applications is a 'deliberate failure to prepare thoroughly for the surge in application deadlines'," and urged, "It will be regular time in three months, but the authorities should immediately come up with a reasonable and perfect remedy instead of continuing with half-baked measures."

At the same time, he emphasized, “The Ministry of Education and the Fair Trade Commission completely shifted responsibility to the private sector and did nothing,” and added, “We condemn the Ministry of Education’s irresponsible attitude.”