88% of Suneung supervisors concerned about their rights

Seniors at Sungji Girls' High School in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province are seen studying on Tuesday, two days before this year's Suneung college entrance exam. (Yonhap)

An overwhelming majority of middle and high school teachers nationwide worry that their basic rights may be violated when supervising the Suneung college entrance exam, a survey showed Monday.

The Korean Federation of Teachers Unions conducted the survey on 4,654 teachers across the country, in which 88 percent of the respondents said they have been concerned about potential human rights violations during Suneung duties.

The Ministry of Education requires to middle and high schools across the country to select required number of teachers to be supervisors for the state-run exam from middle and high schools across the country. This year, 69,440 teachers were picked to monitor the 522,670 test-takers.

But many teachers are reluctant to take on Suneung duties due to the high number of student and parent complaints related to the test. Suneung scores are crucial in South Korean college admissions, and education authorities often get dragged into complaints or even litigation related to the test.

Last year, students who took Suneung at Kyungdon High School in Seoul sued the Education Ministry for allegedly ending the test a minute early.

The survey showed that the teachers have issues with a lack of breaks, with 86 percent of the respondents saying that they were not given bathroom breaks while having to monitor the tests, which take several hours.

Some 81 percent said that even selection of the Suneung supervisors in itself violated their human rights. They said that schools assigned Suneung duties against the teachers' will, and that younger teachers often gets picked first.

Only 4 percent of the respondents believed they would be protected by the authorities if their rights are infringed during Suneung duties.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)