Gwangju High School Admissions to Expand Academic Record Consideration... "Middle School First-Year Grades Included"

10% of First-Year Middle School Grades to Be Reflected
Early and Regular Application Allocation System Maintained
School Autonomous Subject Grades to Be Excluded from 2028

Starting from the 2026 academic year, grades from the second semester of first-year middle school students in Gwangju will be included in the high school admission evaluation. As the weighting of academic records, which was previously focused on second and third-year middle school grades, is adjusted, changes are expected in high school admission preparation.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education announced the '2026 Gwangju High School Admission Basic Plan' on its website on the 21st. This year's high school admissions process will be divided into early and regular admissions depending on the schedule.

Gwangju Office of Education building.

Early admissions include schools such as Gwangju Physical Education High School, Gwangju Arts High School, Gwangju Science High School, and specialized high schools, where principals have the autonomy to select students. Regular admissions apply to autonomous public high schools, science-focused high schools, standardized general high schools, and non-standardized high schools.

The main change this year is the method of reflecting academic records. Until now, grades from the second year of middle school accounted for 40% and third year for 60%. However, starting from the 2026 academic year, the weighting will be adjusted to 10% for first year, 40% for second year, and 50% for third year. Considering the free semester system in the first year, only grades from the second semester of the first year will be included.

The allocation for standardized general high schools will remain the same as before, with 20% through early application and 80% through regular application. Students can select two schools in the early application stage, and for regular application, they choose from among the schools available for their middle school. Allocation is done through a random computerized lottery.

The Office of Education also provided advance notice of some changes to the 2028 high school admissions process, which will apply to students currently in their first year of middle school. Under the 2022 revised curriculum, grades for school autonomous time subjects will be excluded from academic records, and the current requirement of seven hours of volunteer work per year for full marks will be maintained. Detailed information on high school admissions is available on the websites of the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and the Gwangju Career and College Counseling Center.

Superintendent Lee Jeongseon said, "As the imbalance in school allocation due to high school ranking is serious, we will work to reduce inconvenience for students and parents and improve satisfaction with the high school admissions process."