The Ministry of Education said on the 16th it will ensure there is no similarity between test papers, including by varying questions by continent, when writing questions for the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), which assesses foreigners' Korean ability. The move follows the detection of cases in which people leaked answers by exploiting time differences as the test is administered by country at different times.
The Ministry of Education said, "We will prepare measures to strengthen fairness to fundamentally prevent answer leaks," adding, "We will apply them immediately starting with the July test." The Ministry of Education is reviewing several options, including using different questions by continent.
On the 12th, at a TOPIK test site in Korea, a Chinese national identified as A was caught looking at a slip of paper believed to contain answers to the test questions. A was said to have purchased the answers through Chinese social media.
The Ministry of Education said it "takes the matter very seriously" and "is doing its utmost to manage TOPIK's fairness and prevent cheating."