Lee Jae-myung "Stable preparation needed to change system... College entrance exam controversy must be reconsidered from the start"

Park Kwang-on "Lee Ju-ho should clarify if President Yoon knows about the 4-year advance notice system for college admissions"
Opposition "Supplementary budget needed to ease energy burden... Opposition should start discussions first"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, demanded a fundamental reconsideration regarding the controversy over the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) on the 21st. Lee said, "It's not that we shouldn't change the system, but if the system is to be changed, it must be prepared stably without confusion after deep consideration and research."

At the Democratic Party's Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Lee criticized, "The biggest risk to South Korea's education is President Yoon Seok-yeol," adding, "The president has turned the education field into a chaotic mess." Earlier, on the 15th, President Yoon instructed during a report on education reform and current issues by Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, "Exclude questions from the CSAT that cover areas not included in the curriculum." Since then, concerns about changes such as the difficulty level of the CSAT have poured in with less than five months remaining until the test.

Regarding this, Lee said, "Instead of managing the ruling party, the president is praised as an education expert, and the Minister of Education, who claims to be a 30-year education expert, supports the president by saying he learned from him, disregarding his own career," and pointed out, "The bigger problem is the president's irresponsible attitude of causing great confusion and then acting as if it is none of his concern."

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 21st. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

He continued, "The state affairs must be managed stably. We need to think about why education is called a long-term plan for a hundred years," and said, "I hope the government reconsiders this from the ground up."

Park Kwang-on, floor leader of the Democratic Party, also said at the meeting, "Article 34, Paragraph 5 of the Higher Education Act clearly stipulates that the Minister of Education must announce the basic direction, subjects, and formats of the entrance exam plan four years in advance," and introduced, "Minister Lee mentioned this when he came to a study group of People Power Party lawmakers in March, saying that the entrance exam is a four-year notice system, that the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's entrance exam was decided during the Moon Jae-in administration, and that the Yoon administration will decide the next government's entrance exam, which is exactly according to this Higher Education Act provision." Park added, "This four-year notice system was created to prevent social confusion caused by sudden changes in the entrance exam system," and argued, "President Yoon should clarify whether he was aware of this legal provision, and Minister Lee needs to respond. Minister Lee has the obligation to clearly reveal the facts regarding responsibility for the current confusion."

Meanwhile, Park also mentioned concerns about cooling costs due to the unprecedented heatwave, saying, "A supplementary budget is absolutely necessary to alleviate the energy burden," and added, "If the government proposes a supplementary budget plan, the Democratic Party is ready to negotiate. First, the Democratic Party will start discussions on the supplementary budget with opposition parties including the Justice Party."