Suneung to be held despite social distancing level 3... Yoo Eun-hye: "The most test sites and supervisors ever deployed"

Scheduled for December 3
Exceptions to Gathering Ban

Reduce Density from 28 to 24 per Classroom
Install Partitions on Each Desk

Separate Hospital Testing Rooms for Confirmed Cases
Expand Supervisors and Quarantine Staff to Over 30,000

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] The 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) will be held on December 3rd, recognized as an exception to the gathering ban even under social distancing level 3.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye held a briefing at the Government Sejong Complex on the 28th and announced the 2021 college entrance exam management plan. This plan was prepared in consultation with the National Council of Superintendents of Education, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

This year’s CSAT will see a significant expansion in test sites and exam management personnel. First, the test rooms will be divided into separate rooms for general examinees, examinees showing suspected symptoms such as fever on the exam day, separate rooms for those in self-quarantine, and test rooms at hospitals or residential treatment centers for confirmed cases.

For general examinees, the number of students per test room will be reduced from 28 to 24 to lower density, and partitions will be installed on each desk. With the reduction to 24 examinees per room, an additional 4,318 test sites have been secured. Each test site school will prepare at least five separate rooms for examinees showing suspected symptoms. The newly established separate rooms for symptomatic examinees total 7,855 this year. As a result, the total number of test rooms has increased by about 12,000 from the previous year to 33,173. Supervisory and quarantine personnel have also increased by more than 30,000. To protect examinees, high schools will switch entirely to remote classes starting one week before the CSAT day.

Since the Ministry of Education’s early application period has closed and examinees applying for university-specific evaluations have been confirmed, a full-scale situation management system involving the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, the University Education Council, and the Council of Colleges of Technology will operate from October. For university-specific evaluations, the Ministry of Education has divided the country into eight regions, with separate test sites prepared within each region. Deputy Prime Minister Yoo said, "We will establish a situation management system together with the Central Disease Control Headquarters and large corporations to help universities prepare for evaluations at separate test sites and provide examinee demand information." Based on examinee information uploaded by universities and quarantine/confirmed case data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the University Education Council will generate quarantine and confirmed case information for examinees, and universities will notify quarantined examinees of precautions via phone or text message.

The Ministry of Education plans to diagnose and manage risk factors for detailed tasks through a consultative body composed of the Vice Minister and deputy superintendents of education from 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education.