In South Korea, Students Are Suing Government For Ending Exam 90 Seconds Early

A group of South Korean students are suing the government claiming that their college entrance examination ended 90 seconds earlier than scheduled, BBC reported. Each student is asking for 20 million won (Rs 12,77,938) in damages, which is the same as the cost of a year’s tuition for a retest. Their lawyer said that the error affected the rest of the students’ exams.

Notably, the college admission exam, commonly known as Suneung, is a grueling eight-hour test marathon featuring several papers across various subjects. It is one of the hardest exams in the world which determines university placements, job prospects, and even future relationships. Various measures, such as closing the country’s airspace and delaying the opening of the stock market, are implemented during the annual exam to help students concentrate.

More than half a million students took the Suneung exam this year and the results were released on December 8.

The lawsuit, filed by at least 39 students, notes that the bell rang early during the Korean language test – the first subject of the exam in the capital Seoul. Despite protests by students, the supervisors proceeded to collect answer sheets. The mistake was acknowledged by teachers before the next session began, and one and a half minutes were granted back during the lunch break. 

However, students could only mark blank columns on their papers and were prohibited from altering any existing answers. The mishap left the students so upset that they could not focus on the rest of the exam, and some even went home. 

Attorney Kim Woo-suk, representing the students, claimed that education authorities had not issued an apology. Public broadcaster KBS quoted officials who said the supervisor in charge of the specific test centre had misread the time.

In a similar case in April, students received compensation due to an early bell during the 2021 Suneung exam. In 2012, a Chinese man received a one-year suspended sentence for prematurely ringing the bell by four minutes and 48 seconds during the national college entrance exam in Hunan province.