A first-instance court ruling has determined that the state should compensate the examinees for damages related to the incident where the exam ending bell rang one minute early during the 2024 college entrance examination at Kyungdong High School in Seoul.
The Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 30, presided over by Director General Kim Seok-beom, ruled on the 27th that 43 examinees who took the 2024 college entrance exam at Kyungdong High School partially won their damages claim against the state, seeking 20 million won per person.
The court ordered the state to pay 1 million won each to two examinees and 3 million won each to the remaining examinees.
Earlier, on Nov. 16, 2023, an incident occurred where the ending bell for the first session Korean exam at Kyungdong High School rang one minute early. Kyungdong High was using a manual ringing system, and the incident was caused by a miscalculation by the responsible teacher.
Once the school realized the mistake, they distributed the first session Korean exam papers again after the second session math exam ended, allowing the examinees to take an additional 1 minute and 30 seconds for the exam. However, it was reported that the responses already written could not be altered.
The examinees filed a lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court, stating that after the incident, the education authorities did not apologize to the affected students and failed to provide measures to prevent a recurrence. They argued that the state responded carelessly without taking preventive measures to avoid the ringing incident, resulting in severe damages, with no post-incident recovery actions such as compensation being carried out.
In the ruling, the court stated, "The ringing incident and its subsequent actions constitute an unlawful act in which the exam venue's responsible person and the proctor responsible for ringing failed to fulfill their duty to conduct the exam fairly and justly while performing their duties for the college entrance examination." It added, "The state is liable under the government compensation law for the mental damages suffered by the examinees due to the unlawful act of the proctor."
However, the court stated, "Based on the evidence presented, it cannot be acknowledged that the examinees experienced specific additional damages, such as writing answers on the OMR answer sheet that differed from what they had thought, receiving lower scores than usual on the college entrance exam, or not being able to enter their desired university, leading to a need to retake the exam."
Kim Woo-seok, the representative lawyer from Myongjin Law Firm, who represented the examinees, noted to reporters in front of the court after the first-instance ruling, "We plan to appeal." Attorney Kim stated, "I question whether the court's decision to set the awarded amount at 1 million to 3 million won is appropriate while recognizing the education authorities' responsibility."