[2026 Parliamentary Audit] KCUE Chairman: "Even Considering Resignation"... NEC to Finalize Long-Term Education Plan Next March

"Rolling Admissions System Outage" Incident: Lee Kijung Says, "I'll Find a Way to Take Responsibility, Including Stepping Down"
NEC Aims to Finalize Long-Term National Education Development Plan by March Next Year

At the National Assembly Education Committee’s comprehensive audit on October 23, members questioned the Korean Council for University Education’s (KCUE) responsibility for managing the admissions application system outage, as well as the National Education Commission’s (NEC) timetable for drawing up a long-term national education development plan.

Ko Min-jung, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, pointed out that the KCUE secretary-general was overseas on a business trip when the rolling admissions application system failed last September. KCUE Secretary-General Lee Kyung-hee was abroad from September 7 to 11, during the rolling admissions application period, and returned to Korea on September 12.

Lee said, “I was overseas on a business trip because I made the wrong decision.” The trip was later considered for cancellation, but it was approved because it was deemed an important engagement.

KCUE Chairman Lee explained, “When I approved it, I did not realize the dates overlapped. I said that the work here did not seem likely to pose a major problem, so it would probably be all right to go.”

In response to Ko’s demand that he take responsibility, Chairman Lee said, “Giving up the chairmanship is no big deal. I will consider even that and find a way to take responsibility.”

The timetable for drawing up a long-term national education development plan, which will determine the direction of national education policy over the next 10 years, also became a point of contention. The NEC has postponed until later this year the release of a draft of the “2028-2037 National Education Development Plan,” which it had originally planned to announce at the end of this month. The decision followed a judgment that further consultations were needed with relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Education, as the draft includes many contentious issues, such as introducing essay-based and short-answer questions to the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT).

In response to a question from Lee In-sun, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, about when the final version of the long-term national education development plan would be approved, NEC Chair Cha Jeong-in said, “It is important to finalize the plan by the end of March next year, the statutory deadline.”

Cha explained, “We had originally planned to release the draft at the end of October and allow about five months until March next year, the deadline for finalizing the plan. Since the public tends to regard a draft as an almost-final plan, the aim is to hold public consultations before releasing it and improve its quality.” On teachers’ fundamental political rights, Cha said, “We are discussing in depth from various perspectives whether it is appropriate to include them in the development plan.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.