2 exam leaks confirmed at Bundang high school; police refer teacher and instructor for prosecution

By KTimes

A temporary teacher at a Bundang high school in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, leaked math exam questions to a private academy not once, but twice, police said, confirming long-suspected allegations of academic misconduct.

The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said Sunday that it referred the temporary high school teacher, identified as A, and a private academy instructor, B, to the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in Seongnam on charges of obstruction of business.

According to police, A is accused of leaking second-semester midterm math exam questions for second-year students ahead of the test, which was held on Oct. 4 last year. B, who received the questions, allegedly used them as practice problems for students enrolled at the academy.

The case came to light after students noticed that several questions on the official exam closely resembled those from recent practice sheets distributed by a nearby academy. The school launched an internal review, obtained the materials in question and found that more than 10 questions were nearly identical. This prompted the school to file a police report and administer a retest on Oct. 28.

In their investigation, police also uncovered that A had leaked the final exam questions from the previous semester in July. However, unlike the midterm case, the school had been unaware of the first leak and did not conduct a retest.

As a result, students who attended the academy were able to achieve high scores, while others may have received disproportionately low grades — yet there was no opportunity for those affected to be compensated or for the grades to be adjusted. With about eight months having passed since the first leak, authorities say it will be difficult to address the situation fairly.

Unlike the second-semester case, for which a retest was held, the initial leak may continue to raise fairness concerns among students and parents.

Police confirmed that some students benefited from the first-semester leak but declined to comment on how many or whether any money had exchanged hands between A and B.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.