Teachers earned illicit millions by colluding with cram schools

Hundreds of teachers in Korea have colluded with private education businesses and pocketed millions of won over the past five years.

A student walks by private academies in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul, on July 2. [YONHAP]

Hundreds of teachers in Korea have colluded with private education businesses and pocketed millions of won over the past five years.

According to the Ministry of Education on Monday, a total of 297 teachers reported themselves to the ministry during a so-called "intensive reporting period" for working with private academies.

Teachers were encouraged to report their involvement in profitable activities outside of their official duties during the period.

The teachers were involved in a total of 768 cases, including 537 cases of writing mock exam questions, 92 cases of creating textbooks and 92 cases of lecturing and consulting at private cram schools, known as hagwon in Korea.

The intensive reporting period for teachers to admit their wrongdoings was set to weed out the so-called "private education cartels" after complaints were filed that some teachers provided extremely difficult “killer” questions to private academies and pocketed large sums of money in return.

“Teachers mostly sold their test questions to large private academies and individual academy teachers,” an official from the Education Ministry said.

“There was even a case where a single teacher sold mock exam questions to multiple private education businesses,”

Some 45 teachers received over 50 million won ($37,000) from private cram schools in the past five years.

One math teacher at a private high school in Gyeonggi received around 480 million won from August 2018 to July of this year for writing mock exam questions for a private education company.

A chemistry teacher at a private high school in Seoul was also given 380 million won after signing with two large private academies and offering test questions.

Both teachers were not approved to hold concurrent job positions.

According to the State Public Officials’ Service Regulations, public officials are not allowed to “concurrently perform” other businesses unless they are approved by the head of their institutions.

Of the 768 reported cases, 341 of them involved teachers who were not approved for additional jobs.

However, the ministry said those who sought approval beforehand will still be eligible for punishment if the ministry believes their side jobs reduced the efficiency of their official duties.

Those who received large sums of money at once may also be charged for violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act.

Under the law, public officials are not allowed to receive a gift worth exceeding 1 million won from an individual.

Additional inspections on those who have not turned themselves in will be conducted along with the Board of Audit and Inspection.

“Although punishment for those who have voluntarily reported themselves will not be reduced, those who have not admitted their faults are expected to face heavier punishments,” a ministry official said.

The ministry plans to provide “practical guidelines regarding having concurrent employment” for teachers in the latter half of the year.

The government’s crackdown on irregularities in the private education sector comes after Yoon ordered Education Minister Lee Ju-ho in June to exclude any material that is not covered in public education from the annual state-administered College Scholastic Ability Test.

BY CHOI MIN-JI, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]