what is the “Suneung”, this national exam during which the country stops for the duration of the tests

In South Korea, students have just filed a complaint against the Ministry of Education. They believe that the authorities penalized them during the big exam called “Suneung”, which determines their entry to university, and even their entire life.

Korean students filed a complaint on Tuesday, December 19, explaining that invigilators snatched their papers 90 seconds before the official end of a test, on the day of the final exam on November 16.

It seems little, it seems anecdotal, but it is a national tragedy. In South Korea, we don’t joke about this exam called “Suneung”. It’s much more than our baccalaureate. The number of points obtained in these tests determines the rank of the university that it is possible to integrate. And consequently, the company in which the student will then be able to make a career. Giants like Samsung, Hyundai or LG traditionally recruit the best from the country’s three best universities.

An exam prepared since childhood

So, children and families prepare years in advance for “Suneung”. Everyone in the country takes support lessons, which are very expensive, for the five events which are concentrated on a single day in mid-November. These are tests in Korean, English, science and another foreign language.

On the big day, stress is at its peak. The whole country stops so that the children can think about their copy in the best conditions. Plane flights are delayed, companies change their schedules so that there are no traffic jams or crowds in the metro. Noisy construction sites near exam centers are suspended. The idea is that every child in the country has the same perfect conditions to work. At the same time, parents traditionally spend the day praying at the Buddhist temple.

Monitoring the tests, a sensitive task

But this year, students felt cheated. A group of 39 students at a Seoul exam center say their test was ruined because the bell marking the end of the first test in the morning rang 90 seconds early. They say that they were unable to refine their copy because of that minute and a half lost and that this stress weighed on their motivation during the other tests of the day. They were “demobilized”.

They therefore hired a lawyer and filed a complaint on Tuesday, December 19 against the government. They are demanding 20 million won each, that is to say 14,000 euros. This is the amount, they say, that a year of repeating a year will cost them to repeat the “Suneung” in optimal conditions.

Legal background

They have a chance of winning their lawsuit, because students had already filed a complaint in 2021 for a similar problem. This time, they had their copy taken two minutes too early. And a Seoul court awarded them 5,000 euros each in damages.

A similar case took place in China in 2012, in Hunan. There, an official had sounded the end of the big university entrance exam five minutes too early. This caused a scandal in the families. The official was arrested for negligence and received a one-year suspended prison sentence.