Kim Chul, a professor in the Department of General Studies, GIST

The Admission Officer System is spreading not only at universities but also at national science high school or foreign language high school and science institutes for the gifted. There have been reports that President Lee Myung Bak who showed much enthusiasm for education reform made active admission officer system a priority as the first agenda of national affairs meeting.

The goal of the system is to look into academic and nonacademic performance and capabilities of the applicants and assess the potential so that students can grow later to contribute to society with solid sense of value after completing the course.

 This is more fundamental rather than enhancing public education and reducing private education costs. However, there is much controversy over its fairness because the standard is based on Qualitative education assessment and subjective opinion of officers.

That’s why the system needs to be established based on firm ground and officers need to get professional and consistent training.

With this precondition met, another necessary thing is mutual trust among interested parties with regard to the admission officer system. The officers have to have trust in references and academic records of the candidates, which means faith in public education system and teachers. Middle schools have to show their faith to high school admission system and high schools to universities.

The next thing is a virtuous cycle of trust. Every party should build faith among each other so the system can further develop and improve its efficiency.

This is not consecutive virtuous cycle of trust that puts faith first on the grounds that officers’ assessment or references of teachers should be reliable. Rather it should be simultaneous mode of trust among each party.

Even though there is something lacking, making up for the lack itself should be also based on trust.