The bar for admission to teachers’ colleges has dropped precipitously. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Apr. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – As the prestige of the teaching profession has waned in South Korea amid controversies over disciplinary issues, the bar for admission to teachers’ colleges has dropped precipitously, with some schools accepting students who scored in the bottom tier on the national college entrance exam.
An analysis by Jongno Academy, a prominent test preparation company, of the admissions data released by nine teachers’ colleges across the country revealed that the cutoff scores for acceptance have plunged across the board.
Most strikingly, at Kongju National University’s College of Education, students who received the lowest possible score of 6 — on a 9-point scale — in the Korean language, mathematics and inquiry sections of the College Scholastic Ability Test were admitted through the regular admissions process this year, the analysis showed. While different students received those lowest scores in each subject area, the findings highlighted the colleges’ diminishing standards.
“Teachers’ colleges, even regional ones, were conventionally perceived to accept only students with top high school grades and scores in the second-highest tier on the national exam,” said Lim Seong-ho, the head of Jongno Academy. “Such rock-bottom cutoffs are extremely unusual.”
Kongju was the only teachers’ college among the nine that publicly disclosed the minimum exam scores of admitted students. The average scores of its final enrollees across the Korean, math, English and inquiry sections dropped by half a tier this year, to 3.1 from 2.6 last year. The lowest-scoring admitted students averaged a dismal 3.88 across the four sections.
Other top teachers’ colleges that used their own scoring systems also showed declines. At Seoul National University of Education, the average scores of admitted students dropped to 628.5 points this year from 636.2 last year. Similar slides were reported at Jeonju National University of Education, Chinju National University of Education and Chuncheon National University of Education.
Even as admissions standards crumbled, competition for the limited spots intensified. The overall ratio of applicants to admitted students across South Korea’s 13 teachers’ colleges and education departments jumped to 3.2 to 1 this year — the highest level in five years.
The increase in applications stemmed largely from students who failed to meet minimum College Scholastic Ability Test score requirements through early admissions being shunted into the pool for regular admissions, which take test results into account, Jongno Academy said.
At Seoul National University of Education, for instance, 80.5% of slots were taken in the early admissions process, while at Chinju National University of Education the proportion was 72.1% — meaning fewer spots were available in the final round.
The spike in competition “created expectations of even lower cutoff scores, ironically raising the ratio” of total applicants, Lim said.
Still, with different scoring criteria at each college, comparing cutoff levels across institutions remains impossible based on the limited public data, he added. But Lim warned that “admissions standards are unlikely to rebound next year given this year’s low levels.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
