South Korea Plans Criminal Complaints Against Students Who Cheat With Smart Glasses; Exam Ban Would Rise From One Year to Three, With Dedicated Staff at Test Sites Nationwide
SEOUL, South Korea, October 30 — South Korea plans to file criminal complaints against students caught cheating in national university entrance examinations using smart glasses, and to extend the ban on retaking the examination from one year to three years, an education ministry official told Agence France-Presse. The Education Ministry has also assigned a designated staff member to each of the country's roughly 1,300 test sites to identify suspicious eyewear and prevent candidates from using smart glasses to access unauthorized assistance.
Education ministry official Lee Joon-hyuk disclosed the plan to AFP on Friday, October 30. “The ministry will seek criminal charges against students caught cheating with smart glasses,” Lee said. Under the proposed measures, students caught using smart glasses to cheat will be barred from retaking their examinations for three years, up from the current one-year disqualification. However, Lee said the tougher penalties are unlikely to apply to next month's university entrance examinations, as with only about 20 days left until the exam it would be realistically difficult to amend the law before then; the government plans to push for the changes to take effect from next year's exam.
The proposed crackdown follows an incident in which three students were caught wearing or possessing smart glasses during university-administered essay examinations in Seoul. On October 15, the ministry sent an official notice to metropolitan and provincial education offices urging stronger exam supervision and providing guidance on how to identify smart glasses, and on Thursday it announced an additional response plan, including the designated staff member at each examination centre. South Korea's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), known as the Suneung, is a highly competitive national university entrance examination widely regarded as a gateway to prestigious universities and to economic security and social mobility. The ministry said it would urge universities to adopt similarly strict penalties for their own admissions tests; detection equipment such as radio-frequency detectors would not be available at test centers until next year at the earliest.
Source: GSM News
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 韩国大学修学能力考试日，考生在考场外（资料图）。 Students outside a test site on College Scholastic Ability Test day in South Korea (file photo). CC BY-SA 2.0，图片来源：韩国文化体育观光部／Wikimedia Commons。
