"Principal with 'Poor Appearance' Faces Trial for Manipulating High School Entrance Exam Scores"

Score Deduction Instructions for Self-Introduction... Student Fails
Prosecutors Indict Without Detention on Charges Including Obstruction of Business

The principal and staff members who disqualified a specific student in a high school entrance examination due to poor appearance have been brought to trial.

The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Shin Geum-jae) announced on the 31st that former principal A and External Cooperation Director B of a specialized high school in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, were indicted without detention on charges including obstruction of business.

According to the prosecution, A and others are accused of instructing the entrance examination evaluators to deduct points from a specific student's self-introduction essay score, which had already been graded, on the grounds that the student's appearance was poor during the entrance screening held in November 2020. Following A's instructions, the evaluators lowered the scores, resulting in the student's eventual disqualification.

It was also investigated that they deducted the self-introduction essay scores of two other students with the purpose of filling the quota for less popular departments. These two students failed to be admitted to the departments they applied for as their first choice but were accepted into departments they listed as lower preferences.

Earlier, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education confirmed the school's admission fraud through an audit at the end of 2021 and requested disciplinary action from the school foundation, resulting in a suspension for A and a pay cut for one teacher.