Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) said on the 10th that Director Oh Seung-geol resigned.
KICE said Oh resigned, noting, "Because the questions for the English section of the 2026 College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) did not align with the purpose of absolute grading, I fully recognize my heavy responsibility for causing concern to test-takers and parents and creating confusion in admissions."
Oh stepped down 2 years and 4 months after taking office in Aug. 2023. The KICE director's term is three years and can be renewed once, but he did not complete the term. Lee Gyu-min, Oh's predecessor as KICE director, also resigned before finishing the term after becoming embroiled in controversy in June 2023 over "killer questions" (ultra-difficult questions) in a mock CSAT.
KICE said it will use this CSAT as an opportunity to review the entire question-setting process and prepare improvements, and will do its best to ensure future CSAT questions are produced stably so they can contribute to normalizing public education.
In the CSAT held on the 13th of last month, the share of first-grade scores in the English section was 3.11%. It was the lowest since absolute grading was introduced for the 2018 academic year and was dubbed "fire English." Even considering that the first-grade share for relative-grading subjects is 4%, it is significantly lower. As a result, criticism mounted that the question-setting body, KICE, failed to control the difficulty level.
The Education Ministry said earlier this month it would conduct a thorough investigation into the entire question-setting and review process for the CSAT and respond strictly based on the findings. Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik also said on the 8th regarding the CSAT, "Confusion for test-takers and parents is growing due to the failure to control the difficulty of English," and asked the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation and the Education Ministry to come up with responsible measures.