Grade 5 Public Official Korea

[Cherie Trojak]

TheRepublic of Korea public service examinations are examinations held to screen applicants to the South Korean Civil Service, South Korean Foreign Service and South Korean Legal Service. The examinations are open to all Republic of Korea citizens, and the applicant need not be the holder of a degree or have any other experience; passing the exams are in themselves sufficient for recruitment; however the exams are notoriously hard.[1]

Similar exams existed for the legal profession, called the bar examination (the Korean system differed significantly from those in other jurisdictions in that passing the exam was in itself was sufficient to enter the profession and one need not have attended a law school and received a law degree) and for the Korean foreign service.

The civil service exam for fifth grade civil servants is divided into three sections.[2] The first test includes language logic, data analysis, situational judgment, Constitution, Korean history, and English. Language logic, data analysis, and decision-making are called PSAT (Public Service Attitude Test) and each has 40 questions. The constitution is 20 questions. English and Korean history are replaced by certificates. The second test includes economics, administrative law, administration, politics, and information system theory. The second exam is held for a total of 5 days with one subject per day. It takes about 10 pages of test paper for two hours that day. The third test is an interview.

The 7th grade civil service exam is divided into two sections. In the first test, there are seven subjects: Korean, Korean history, English, Constitution, Administrative Law, Public Administration and Economics. There are 20 questions each. The second test is an interview.

The 9th grade civil service exam is divided into two sections. There are five subjects in the first test: Korean, Korean history, English, Public Administration, and Administrative Law. There are 20 questions each. The second test is an interview.

In response to comments that the effect of preventing a conflict of private and public interests is relatively small as stocks in blind trust often get

returned to the trustor once his/her duty ends as a result of retirement or termination of assignment due to challenges in the disposal of stocks,

an arrangement was introduced in 2015 to avoid conflicts of interest in the duties of public officials.

When the stocks placed in blind trust have not been fully disposed of, the officials concerned are prohibited from performing duties related to the relevant

stocks without having completed the assessment on relevance of duties after applying for a change in assignment. In accordance with relevant legislation,

when it is impossible to avoid duties, such engagement should be reported to the public service ethics committee, which will publicly announce the reported

details in the official gazette or public bulletins.

When high-level officials maintain stock holdings, it is likely that they will try to make policy decisions in a way that increases the value of such stocks.

Furthermore, they may obtain profits by trading stocks based on information gained while performing their official duties. It becomes possible to enhance fairness

in policy making with blind stock trusts by preventing in advance the conflict of public and private interests that can arise in public service.

Restrictions on employment and restrictions on activities of retired public officials prevent the formation of collusive ties that could result in the provision of

benefits to particular companies for the purpose of employment post-retirement. The restrictions also aim to prevent retired public officials from exerting unfair

influence over institutions to which they were previously affiliated after being employed by a company. Furthermore, the purpose of these restrictions is to

secure fairness in the performance of public services by eradicating the practice of granting privileges to predecessors and the resulting public-private collusive ties

and ultimately, to strengthen the trust of citizens in public services.

This education profile describes recent trends in South Korean education and student mobility and provides an overview of the structure of the education system of South Korea. It replaces an earlier version by Hanna Park and Nick Clark.

This extreme competitiveness has created a number of social problems: Suicide, for instance, is the leading cause of death among teens in Korea, which has the highest suicide rate overall in the entire OECD. Student surveys have shown that poor grades and fears of failure are major reasons for suicidal thoughts, while Korea simultaneously has a growing teenage drinking problem.

The government also plans to reduce university admissions fees, and decongest school curricula and make them more flexible by introducing more elective subjects. Elite private high schools (autonomous schools) and international schools that teach foreign curricula are slated to be turned into tuition-free schools that teach standard national curricula in order to rein in elite schools.

To ensure the longevity of the reforms irrespective of changes in government, they are intended to be implemented by a new independent state education committee, rather than the politically controlled Ministry of Education (MOE). That said, as of this writing no concrete steps have yet been taken to form this new committee.

Despite a recent slump in overseas enrollments by Korean students, Korea is one of the top sending countries of international students worldwide after China, India and Germany. The number of Koreans enrolled in degree programs abroad peaked at 128,994 in 2011, after doubling from 64,943 in 1997, according to data provided by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS). Since then, the number of degree-seeking Korean international students has decreased by 15.8 percent to an estimated 108,608 students in 2017.

Trends in Korean outbound mobility are driven by a number of influences, including economic factors, increased participation rates and demand-supply gaps in higher education, demographic trends, and the rising demand for English language education.

In the decades leading up to the 2011 peak, the number of Korean youths completing upper-secondary school surged, drastically increasing the pool of potential international students, while simultaneously exacerbating supply shortages that made access to quality university education increasingly difficult and competitive. Robust economic growth and rising prosperity simultaneously allowed more people to afford an overseas education.

The rapid expansion of the higher education system also led to the creation of growing numbers of private institutions of lesser quality with only a minority of the very best students admitted to the top institutions. This trend incentivized greater numbers of students to pursue education abroad, especially since Korean society came to value English-language education. These developments created a fertile environment for Korean outbound student mobility.

In addition, unemployment among university graduates is not only high, it exceeds unemployment rates among graduates of vocational high schools, leaving many families doubting if an expensive university degree is still worth it, according to MGI.

Moreover, since Korean universities increasingly offer English-taught programs, there is less incentive to study abroad to improve English skills. Dwindling student numbers, meanwhile, have narrowed the demand and supply gap in higher education to the extent that the Korean government is now forced to close down growing numbers of universities. This is bound to affect cost-benefit calculations, especially since the Korean government is simultaneously undertaking heightened efforts to improve the quality of its higher education institutions (HEIs), while ramping up scholarship funding.

In the U.S., Korea remains the third-largest sending country of international students after China and India, despite a significant drop in enrollments in recent years. According to the Open Doors data of the Institute of International Education (IIE), Korean enrollments declined by almost 22 percent since the 2008/09 academic year and stood at 58,663 in 2016/17. Year-over-year enrollment growth from Korea has persistently declined since 2011/12, whereas year-over-year growth for China and India increased by approximately 12 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Further declines are likely. According to SEVIS student visa data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, the number of Koreans holding active F and M student visas decreased from 71,206 to 67,326 between March 2017 and March 2018.

The most popular fields of study of Korean students in the U.S. are business and management, engineering, social sciences, and fine and applied arts, according to Open Doors. Most Korean students study at the undergraduate level. Between 2015/16 and 2016/17, undergraduate enrollments declined by 8 percent while graduate enrollments only dropped by about 1 percent. However, 51 percent of students were still enrolled at the undergraduate level, compared with 28 percent at the graduate level and 21 percent in Optional Practical Training and non-degree programs.

The picture in other destination countries is mixed. Per UIS, the number of Korean students enrolled in degree programs in Japan has plunged by more than 50 percent since 2011 and decreased from 25,961 students to only 12,951 students in 2016, although Korea is still the fourth-largest sending country in Japan overall. Australia, likewise, saw Korean enrollments in degree programs drop by 23 percent between 2011 and 2016 despite a record-breaking surge in international enrollments in general. According to the latest Australian government data, this downward trend is currently continuing.

Despite the growing attractiveness of China, English remains the most coveted foreign language for Koreans, and Korea is one of the largest markets for English language training (ELT) worldwide. Instead of enrolling in academic degree programs in countries like the U.S., growing numbers of Koreans now seek to improve their English skills in more affordable ELT schools in places like Malta or the Philippines.

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