High school probe reveals grade manipulation

A foreign language high school in Seoul

Foreign-language schools bend rules in trying to send students abroad

South Korea’s educational authorities have uncovered illicit conduct at several foreign-language high schools with some granting special privileges to students and others inflating students’ grades.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development said on January 7 it had investigated special-purpose high schools nationwide between November 20 and December 15. A total of 48 high schools, including 29 foreign-language high schools, were probed.

According to the results of the investigation, six foreign-language high schools nationwide were found to have manipulated students’ academic transcripts when translating them into English for use in applying to universities abroad, confirming the findings of an investigative report by the Hankyoreh last year. For example, some high schools have illicitly increased the grade point average (GPA) of their students by changing their grades when converting between the Korean and British/U.S. systems. Some schools converted the five-level Korean grading system (‘Su, Wu, Mi, Yang, Ga,’) into only four grades in the British/U.S. system (‘A, B, C, and D,’ with no mark lower than D given by the Korean schools), guaranteeing a discrepancy in grade reporting.

In addition, some schools graded students who earned between 70 and 80 percent of the points in a class with a ’Su’ grade, while the ministry requires a school give the ’Su’ rating only to students with over 90 percent of a class’ points.

The ministry also found that two foreign-language high schools had exempted students from regular classes, and in some cases in-school examinations, so that those students could take the U.S. Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) for entering U.S. colleges, the ministry said.

The ministry said it would take strong measures against the involved schools and plans to strengthen its monitoring of other special-purpose high schools nationwide.

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