"From 100 to 0 Points" What Did a Middle School 3rd Grader Raise During the Exam... Court's Decision?

On the 31st of last month, when the September mock test for the College Scholastic Ability Test was conducted, high school seniors were preparing for the exam at Yeouido Girls' High School in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article. / Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A court has issued a mediation recommendation to cancel the zero score given to a 3rd-grade middle school student in Seoul who took an exam while possessing a stopwatch.

According to a Yonhap News report on the 17th, the Seoul Administrative Court recently recommended mediation to a middle school in Seoul that considered taking an exam with a stopwatch as cheating. This followed a lawsuit filed by a 3rd-grade middle school student, Ms. A, against the school to nullify the grade calculation decision.

The incident occurred during the first semester final exam held on July 4. At that time, Ms. A took the first period English exam with a stopwatch without communication functions placed on her desk. She had used the stopwatch during the midterm exam without any issues, and the exam supervisor in charge of the English subject on that day did not raise any objections to Ms. A’s stopwatch, Yonhap News reported.

However, the supervisor for the second period exam raised concerns about Ms. A’s possession of the stopwatch. Subsequently, the school held an academic performance management committee meeting and judged that Ms. A’s action constituted cheating.

According to the 2022 guidelines for middle school academic performance management and supervision teachers announced by the education office, devices such as mobile phones, Bluetooth-enabled earphones, and watches with electronic displays are classified as electronic devices. The school based its judgment on these regulations from the education office, considering the stopwatch as a watch with an electronic display. As a result, Ms. A’s English score, which was originally 100 points, was changed to zero.

Ms. A and her parents strongly opposed this decision. They argued that a stopwatch is a type of watch that tells time and is not an electronic device connected to a communication network that could facilitate cheating.

They also pointed out the problem that the school did not clearly notify teachers and students that stopwatches were considered electronic devices subject to cheating penalties. In fact, the final exam guidelines provided by Ms. A’s school mentioned examples of electronic devices that could not be used during exams, such as smartphones and wireless earphones, but did not provide a clear explanation regarding stopwatches, Yonhap News reported.

Meanwhile, it is known that Ms. A’s side had previously appealed these issues through the education office’s Sinmungo (complaint system) but was not accepted, leading to the related lawsuit.