YOON’S NEW EDUCATION SCHEME

[Anchor Lead]

With concerns rising about a widening education gap caused by the pandemic, President Yoon has vowed to bolster basic education through a national scholastic performance test. The move has sparked concerns over the revival of the state-run standardized test, but the education ministry made it clear that the performance test will only be conducted in schools and classes that want it.

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President Yoon outlined plans regarding a national scholastic performance test, one of his campaign pledges.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President) : "If we neglect children’s education because of criticism over lining up students based on grades, S. Korea’s future will be bleak. I want the scholastic performance test, which was abolished by the previous administration, to be introduced at all schools that want it."

Last year, when classes were mostly conducted online due to the pandemic, the number of students with poor basic academic skills who understood less than 20 percent of school material, soared. In math, nearly 15 percent of high school sophomores performed poorly. Over 11 percent of middle school juniors failed to meet standards. That's a four percentage point increase from four years ago. The education ministry says the national scholastic performance test, which is currently conducted on only 3 percent of middle school juniors and high school sophomores, will be expanded to third graders through high school sophomores by 2024 in a bid to narrow the education gap. However, the test will be optional and the results will only be disclosed to test-taking students, their parents and teachers. The ministry emphasized it's not going to be a revival of the state-run standardized test.

[Soundbite] Jang Sang-yoon(Vice Minister of Education) : "This does not mean the standardized test or the nat’l assessment of educational achievement will be revived. Only schools that opt to hold the test will take part in it."

Parents seem to be split on the matter.

[Soundbite] (Elementary school student’s parent) : "I would like to have my child’s academic performance evaluated."

[Soundbite] (High school student’s parent) : "We don’t want to line the students by score and rate students through a unified test, but help them improve their academic skills they lack."

By 2027, the education ministry plans to introduce the Do-Dream project to support students who need help in meeting basic academic levels.