Regarding the failure to control the difficulty of the English section on this year's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), the Ministry of Education said on the 15th that it would "closely investigate the entire process of test writing and review, prepare fundamental institutional improvement measures, and work to prevent the same problem from recurring in the future."
Jung Byeong-ik, the Ministry of Education Spokesperson, said at a regular briefing that day, "Even though the English section is graded on an absolute scale, its difficulty was high and the burden was heavy. The ministry takes these concerns very seriously," adding, "We are currently preparing measures through an investigation to maintain a stable level of difficulty."
According to the Spokesperson Jung, Minister Choi Kyo-jin of the Ministry of Education conveyed the position that "as the questions in the English section were set excessively difficult, grades did not come out as expected, or the share of first grade on the absolute scale decreased compared with the relative scale, and we are very sorry for the difficulties students and parents experienced."
Earlier, in the 2026 academic year CSAT, the share of English first grade (raw score of 90 or higher) was 3.11%, the lowest since the absolute grading system was introduced in the 2018 academic year, giving rise to the term "fire English." It is very low even compared with the 4% share for first grade on the relative scale.
Along with the controversy over CSAT difficulty, some are even mentioning "abolishing the CSAT." The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education released on the 10th a reform plan that would abolish the CSAT for college admissions in the 2040 academic year.
On this, Minister Choi appeared on CBS Radio "Kim Hyun-jung's News Show" on the morning of the same day and said, "There are indeed parts of the intent and direction that we can agree with to some extent, but it is true we are concerned that even greater confusion could come in the field," adding, "The Ministry of Education is now thinking deeply about how to create a college admissions process most suitable for the current 'high school credit system.'"