South Korean teacher and mother arrested for stealing exam papers
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The country is known for placing extreme emphasis on academic achievement.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL - A teacher and a parent of a high school student in South Korea have been arrested for breaking into a school to steal examination papers, the police said on July 16.
The country is known for placing extreme emphasis on academic achievement – with its annual college entrance exam forcing flights to be grounded during English listening tests.
The pair is accused of breaking into a high school in Andong, about 270km south of the capital Seoul, at around 1am on July 4 to steal exam papers, triggering an alarm that led to their arrest.
“A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime,” said a detective at the Andong Police Station, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The teacher was a private tutor for the student while working at the school, where she was employed until February 2024, the authorities said.
Police suspect the pair may have committed similar thefts in the past, helping the student ace academically, and that money was exchanged between the teacher and the mother.
“They tried to steal exam papers across many subjects, not confined to Korean, which the suspect was teaching,” the detective told AFP.
A school maintenance worker was also arrested for aiding the late-night breach, investigators said.
The student, who had maintained top grades since enrolling in 2023, has been expelled and her grades nullified, according to Yonhap news agency.
It is the latest in a series of exam-related scandals in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Nearly 250 public and private school teachers were caught selling mock exam questions to private institutions over six years, earning an average of US$61,000 (S$78,400) a person, according to the state audit body in February. AFP