In this blog post, we will look at the recurring corruption cases in private schools, their causes, institutional loopholes, and ways to improve them.
In addition to the recent corruption case at S High School, there have been an increasing number of cases of falsified grades and teacher hiring corruption in various private schools. The increasing number of corruption cases at schools, which are supposed to be fair, has led to distrust among students and parents. This has lowered the level of trust in education across our society and may have a negative impact on students’ motivation to study. Education itself should be based on fairness and transparency, but the occurrence of these incidents one after another is undermining the very nature of education.
There are three main types of corruption cases in private schools: embezzlement of public funds, admissions corruption, and teacher hiring corruption. Among these, embezzlement of public funds is most often committed by executives or school principals. Typical cases include unfair contracts when selecting caterers or event companies, or the personal embezzlement of school funds. However, the current Private School Act has too many loopholes, and corruption is rampant. With an inadequate monitoring system for private schools, such corruption not only seriously undermines the soundness of school management but also results in the waste of resources that should go to students.
In fact, according to an article published ten days ago, a high school in Yeongju had a case where Mr. Woo, who was a board member and principal six years ago, was dismissed for embezzlement, but returned to the administrative office staff after a year and a half of deprivation and became a middle school teacher in March this year, and then became the vice principal six months later. This is an abuse of the lax provisions of the Private School Act, which restricts the appointment of directors who have been removed from office for five years, but does not prevent them from being appointed as faculty members. Such cases are not limited to Yeongju, but occur frequently across the country, making it urgent to revise the Private School Act.
In fact, financial incidents such as embezzlement of public funds do not receive the attention of the general public, not the students of the relevant school. They think that it is not a big problem because they do not feel the immediate impact, but if such incidents accumulate, the school’s operating funds will be insufficient, and students may not be able to eat high-quality meals or use safe school facilities. In addition, such corruption casts doubt on the transparency of school management and is a major cause of the decline in trust in schools. Therefore, the Private School Act should prevent anyone involved in a public fund corruption case from being appointed to a school within the same foundation as well as to a school of another foundation. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the budget management system and strengthen the monitoring system for transparent budget execution to prevent such corrupt practices from occurring.
Next, admissions fraud is the most talked about case right now. Admissions are a hot topic in Korea, where education is a passion, so issues related to admissions are always in the news. The latest incident involved a father, who is a teacher, leaking test answers to his daughters who are students at the same school. When this was revealed, the school’s students, parents, and the general public were outraged. If this had happened even a month ago, they say, how often would it have happened before that? They have a negative view of private schools.
Since the entrance exam is a sensitive issue, everyone should be evaluated fairly and on an equal footing. For students who are concerned about whether even a single activity they write in their student records or even a single sentence in their transcript will affect their entrance exam, the most important event related to their grades should not be there. However, as such cases keep coming up, more and more people are becoming opposed to the college admission process, which includes the student record review and the student record-based admission process, as well as the private school system. Such admissions fraud creates an environment that is only favorable to certain students, which gives other students an unfair advantage. This can develop into a serious problem that distorts the nature of education.
If the admissions corruption is not corrected, I am concerned that the suspicion will spread to the college entrance exam selection process, leading to distrust of school education. Therefore, we must prevent relatives and friends from being employed at the same school, and strict monitoring and regulations must be in place within private schools to prevent the acquisition of answer sheets or exam questions through power or money. In addition, cooperation and collaboration between parents, teachers, and education authorities are essential to eradicate exam irregularities, and institutional mechanisms to ensure fairness in the exam process at the national level should be further strengthened.
Finally, there are irregularities in teacher appointments. Those who go on to teacher training college will dream of becoming a teacher. Therefore, when they become teachers, it will be their biggest concern and worry. The incident that enraged those who want to become teachers is the corruption in the recruitment of teachers at private schools. In fact, Daegu is the region where the most teacher recruitment corruption cases have been caught in the country. This refers to cases where the children of school-related staff, such as the chairperson, principal, teachers, and administrative staff, are appointed as teachers. Such corrupt practices are frustrating to many prospective teachers who want to enter the teaching profession, and there is a great risk that they will reduce the quality of school education.
Teachers who are appointed in such an unfair manner can harm the candidates for employment and the students of the school. Even if a candidate who meets the publicized employment conditions at a private school is finally accepted, it is often the case that the school announces that there is no suitable candidate if the person who was nominated by the school is not accepted. Teachers who are appointed through this process will have lower levels of knowledge about the subject or guidance of students than teachers who are appointed in a fair manner. Not only will there be doubts about the morality of the teachers, but students will receive a poor education. These problems will eventually have a negative impact on the credibility of the school as a whole and the quality of education, and may also adversely affect the learning environment of students.
As a result of these concerns, the Office of Education and the Office of Education want to ensure transparency in the teacher selection process by promoting the outsourcing of teachers for private schools. This is an important measure to prevent corruption and irregularities that may occur when private schools hire teachers on their own and to improve the quality of education through fair teacher appointments. In addition, for these measures to be successfully implemented, continuous monitoring and strong penalties for corrupt practices must be accompanied.
Public schools are less prone to corruption than private schools. Why is that? It’s because of the way private schools are run. Private schools are schools established and run by corporations or private individuals other than school corporations or public organizations. Therefore, depending on the presence of the foundation’s president and the foundation’s financial status, the school may be closed. Since the school corporation or private school operator appoints the school principal and faculty, they often appoint relatives. The Private School Act was enacted to prevent this, but as seen in the case above, it is exploited by taking advantage of loopholes in the law, and corruption cases are sometimes covered tacitly within the school.
Schools should be fair above all else. However, since private schools are managed by the foundation, they are involved in everything that happens at the school, from budgeting to the appointment of teachers and contracts with vendors. This can reduce the transparency of school management and become a hotbed of corruption. Therefore, fairness should be enhanced in consideration of the characteristics of private schools. In addition, in order to enhance the transparency and fairness of private school management, it is necessary to publicize major issues in school management and consider ways to enhance the accountability of schools through cooperation with the local community.
Private schools also receive state support, so budget planning must be approved or audited by the state. Currently, private school teachers are hired by the provincial or municipal education offices by posting an announcement and taking their own test, separate from the public school teacher exam. It is also necessary to improve the process of hiring private school teachers to eliminate any unfair elements that may arise in this process. By appointing teachers through the same process as public schools, fairness and transparency in teacher appointments can be ensured.
Finally, in order to eliminate corruption, schools that take advantage of the strengths of both private and public schools are needed. Schools should be spaces for students and should uphold the essence of education. In order to become a trustworthy school, not a corrupt one, transparent operation and fair procedures are essential. In order to provide an educational environment that can give students trust, a thorough investigation of the private school corruption cases and institutional improvements should be urgently made.
