South Korea bans entrance exams for English kindergartens

South Korea is set to prohibit English kindergartens from administering level tests or demanding external English proficiency scores, such as TOEFL and TOEIC, for admissions starting October. This move addresses concerns that the intense competition for early education is infringing on children's rights, citing practices like "4-year-old exams" and "7-year-old exams" to gain entry into prestigious English language academies.

The Ministry of Education announced the revised Enforcement Decree of the "Act on the Establishment, Operation, and Extracurricular Instruction of Academies." The amendment, passed in March, explicitly bans selection tests, including level tests, for early childhood education institutions. The decree further details the prohibited methods, which include written exams, oral interviews, practical skill assessments, problem-solving tasks, and presentations designed to gauge a child's learning ability or prior knowledge.

While diagnostic assessments are permitted under specific conditions, such as observing and conversing with a child after enrollment to support their educational activities, these cannot involve assigning scores, grades, rankings, or pass/fail judgments. Parents must provide prior consent for such observations. To ensure compliance, the ministry has introduced penalties for violations. Institutions found conducting prohibited tests or evaluations for recruitment or class placement will be fined 1 million won for the first offense, 2 million won for the second, and 3 million won for the third. The ministry also plans to offer rewards to individuals who report violations, funded by the budget.

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This means that it is not prohibited for academies to operate classes according to the children's academic levels.