High School Seniors Hit Hard by Row over NEIS

▽High Schools Remain Confused

Quite a few high schools are having hard times entering student information in national education information system, or NEIS, as members of the Korea Teachers Union (KTU) refuse to cooperate.

At a high school in Seoul, 10 out of 14 teachers in charge of senior classes are refusing to work with NEIS. ˝We have not been able to decide how to process information for third graders,˝ said an information system teacher at the school. ˝We plan to use the old server system CS for students applying for universities in the coming fall, but we are not sure of what to do if colleges accept only NEIS-based information.˝

A girls` high school in Seoul has decided to adopt NEIS, but three teachers who are members of KTU have been refusing to cooperate. With most teachers not knowing how to enter information, the administration teacher now has to prepare the data himself.

Two other high schools in Seoul had to withdraw their decision to adopt NEIS facing vehement opposition by KTU members.

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education last month, of 7,753 primary, middle and high schools nationwide, 4,688, or 59%, answered they preferred NEIS. 1,786 schools, or 22.4%, said they had yet to decide which one to choose, while 909 (11.4%) and 415 (5.2%) schools answered that they would use handwriting and the old server system respectively.

▽Universities to Accept Both NEIS and CS

Ehwa Women`s University has decided to accept both NEIS and CS-based applications, but not hand-written data. ˝We need to check hand-written data more closely since there is some reliability problem, and doing so we will not handle all the information in time,˝ said Sung Tae-je, an administrative officer at the university.

Most universities allow students to submit hand-written school records, but they will hold high schools accountable when it comes to verification of the records.

Administrative officers at universities in Seoul and Gyeonggi area plan to hold a meeting late this month to discuss how to address the problem.

▽Year-end Entrance Exam Draws Near, Confusion Likely to Grow

Ahead of the year-end college entrance exams, students and schools are required to keep student data in CD ROMs to submit them to universities. The rub is that the codes used for NEIS and CS are different from each other.

Students from schools that keep hand-written records, in particular, will have to print out all the school records themselves to file applications. This will take a great deal of time and efforts.

˝The Ministry of Education has failed to set clear guidelines, and keep saying it is up to school authorities instead,˝ said Hwang Dae-joon, administrative officer at Sungkyunkwan University. ˝Given the large number of students and tight schedule, the year-end entrance exam might lead to chaos.˝

˝We plan to craft due measures after conducting a survey when the fall season begins,˝said an official at the Ministry of Education.

Seong-Chul Hong Hyo-Lim Son sungchul@donga.com aryssong@donga.com