Calls for educational transformation are growing louder in South Korea as the entrance exam-centered education system remains unchanged despite the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and shifts in industrial structure. Education civic groups argued that government-led reform alone has limits, presenting a roadmap for an "education overhaul" that simultaneously challenges credentials-based hiring and the hierarchical university ranking structure.
Education Spring, World Without Worries About Private Education, and Good Teachers Movement jointly announced "6 Areas and 25 Tasks for South Korea's Education Transformation" on Wednesday. The tasks cover responses to changes in industry and hiring, restructuring of the university system, transition to future-oriented schools, resolution of educational gaps, reduction of private education costs, and restoration of trust within the education community.
The core proposal is dismantling the credentials-centered structure. The groups proposed enacting a law against discriminatory hiring based on educational background, which would prohibit employers from collecting information on job candidates' schools and academic credentials. They also emphasized the need to push a government-wide "spec diet campaign" to change the current structure in which job seekers accumulate an average of 12.5 qualifications during their preparation.
The groups also presented proposals for restructuring the university system. Under the "Seoul National University 10 Plus" plan — an expansion and redesign of the government's existing "Make 10 Seoul National Universities" policy — a joint admissions system centered on national and public universities would be established, and a "university admission guarantee system" would be phased in to assure admission for applicants meeting certain criteria. The aim is to ease the current college admissions structure in which applicants are ranked by single-point differences.
Within classrooms, the proposals include converting high school grading and the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) to a pass/fail system and redesigning the high school credit system around competency. Another proposal calls for converting some vocational high schools into alternative-education vocational high schools to strengthen career education. The groups also stressed the need to restructure the curriculum to overcome the "outsourcing of thinking" that has come with the spread of AI.
Measures to address educational gaps and private education issues are being pursued in parallel. The groups propose developing and managing a student happiness index and an educational inequality index, while curbing advance learning and excessive private education demand through measures such as mandatory disclosure of private academies' curriculum progress and a Sunday closure system. They also diagnosed the need for a structural approach, noting that rising private education costs are linked to the declining birth rate.
"Industry and hiring are changing rapidly due to AI, yet education remains stuck in past practices," the groups said. "We will not stop at making demands of the government but will create change directly as education stakeholders and work to translate it into institutional improvements."
