(Seoul) More than half a million students take a crucial university entrance exam in South Korea on Thursday, so important that authorities went so far as to temporarily suspend flights to avoid any noise.
The nine-hour test, which 504,588 students are taking this year, is crucial to securing a place at top universities.
It is also considered the path to high social status, lucrative careers and even good marriage prospects.
Referred to as “suneung” in Korean, this exam is so important that authorities have taken extraordinary measures to prevent any disruption during the exam.
To reduce noise pollution while listening to the English test, the Seoul Ministry of Transportation announced a nationwide ban on all aircraft takeoffs and landings for 35 minutes, except in emergency situations.
With the exception of aircraft in distress, all aircraft in flight must maintain an altitude above 3000 meters during this short period. More than 90 flights had to be postponed because of the review.
Public services and large businesses have been asked to adjust their opening hours to reduce traffic jams and ensure students arrive on time for the national exam, which started at 8:40 a.m. local time.
The Stock Exchange also opened an hour later than usual.
For this year’s exam, authorities have abandoned “killer questions”, i.e. those that cannot be answered by studying only the curriculum taught in public schools, in an effort to reduce dependency towards expensive private schools.
“Questions of appropriate difficulty have been selected […] to ensure that (students) can demonstrate their aptitude based solely on the content covered in the public education curriculum,” Jeong Moon-seong, a university professor who oversaw the administration of the exam, said Thursday this year, to journalists.
The enormous pressure placed on students in South Korea’s ultra-competitive education system has been blamed for fueling teenage depression and suicide, the rates of which are among the highest in the world.
South Korean households spent more than $20 billion on private tuition for elementary, middle and high school students last year, according to official statistics.