STUDENTS FAKE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

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Some students will have to stand trial for faking academic achievements to enter college. They won prizes in competitions with reports written by academy teachers and included them in their school records to receive good grades. Ten students entered college with these false accomplishments.

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"Before submission, just change the tone of this book report." "Stop by and pick up the invention manual." These are messages parents exchanged with officials of a private cram school in southern Seoul. Cram school teachers ghostwrote book reports and papers students submitted to academic competitions in and outside of school. Sixty students won prizes with these ghostwritten reports. These fake achievements were included in their school records and used for college admissions. Students paid as much as 5.6 million won for each of the reports.

[Soundbite] Cram school official(VOICE MODIFIED) : "High school seniors don't have time to come in. So they usually discuss the project on the phone. We then finish the work and send it by email."

Prosecutors sent these students and their parents to trial. They are accused of deceiving competition organizers and obstructing fair judgment by submitting falsified works for two years from 2017. Among them, ten students had entered college through early admissions with these fake accomplishments. Two parents were indicted without detention. Twenty-nine students entering college through regular admissions, which are not affected by competition awards, are under summary indictment. But indictment was suspended for four high school students. Prosecutors are continuing to investigate more cases involving 16 other cram school officials. In relation to this case, a cram school head was sentenced to one year and four months in prison in the first trial this March. A deputy chief of the cram school also received a suspended one-year jail term.