NHRCK: "Age 7 Entrance Exam Violates Children's Rights"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) announced on August 25 that it had expressed its opinion to the Minister of Education, stating that there is a need to develop measures to address extreme forms of early private education, such as the so-called "Age 7 Entrance Exam."

Yonhap News Agency

A total of 826 members of the "National Whistleblower Group Against Child Abuse: Age 7 Entrance Exam" filed a petition with the NHRCK, arguing that extreme early private education, including the Age 7 Entrance Exam, negatively affects children's fundamental rights to healthy growth and development. The NHRCK's Committee on the Rights of the Child dismissed the petition, stating that private academies do not fall within the scope of the Commission's investigations. The Age 7 Entrance Exam refers to tests taken before entering elementary school to gain admission to well-known elementary-level math and English academies.

However, the Commission emphasized that, given the serious impact of extreme early private education on children's rights as a whole, it is necessary for the Ministry of Education to make it mandatory to conduct surveys on the actual conditions of early childhood private education and to disclose such information. The Commission also called for the active establishment of regulations to restrict early private education.

Additionally, the Commission urged the Ministry to seek ways to abolish educational content and assessments that induce excessive pre-elementary school advanced learning, and to implement measures to prevent excessive foreign language instruction before elementary school admission.

The NHRCK stressed that these forms of private education clearly violate Article 10 (the right to pursue happiness) and Article 31 (the right to education) of the Constitution, the Child Welfare Act, and Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees children's rights to rest, leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life, and the arts.