The Education Ministry recently announced the implementation of a new grading system for the English section of the college entrance exam, marking the first major change in the government’s bid to reform Korea’s problem-laden test.

Starting in 2017, the English test for the annual exam, known as the Suneung, will be graded based on an absolute grading rubric. Currently the exam is graded on a curve that sorts all test-takers into nine groups.

Those in education circles, including Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea, had blamed the current grading scale for the “excessive competition among students.”

“Even if a student got a near-perfect score, one would not rest easy under the current system. Students would get hurt because no matter how well he or she has done, someone could always do better. This is not very educational,” Hwang recently told reporters.

The ministry said the absolute grading system would help students focus on assessing their academic accomplishments, rather than surpassing other students in a zero-sum game. Officials said instead of adopting the new system right away, they would give students and parents a grace period to prepare for it.

The details of the new system will be decided no earlier than the second half of 2015.

Experts and lawmakers have said the new grading system could have positive ripple effects. The private education institute Uway said it would alleviate competition among students and lead to a decrease in private education costs.

English accounts for 34.2 percent of the country’s 19 trillion won ($17.2 billion) private education market.

But there are rising concerns about a so-called “balloon effect” ― that as the English private education market deflates, the market for other subjects will grow.

“Without countermeasures for other subjects like math, the effects (of the absolute grading system) will be limited,” said Rep. Ahn Min-suk of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy. “The Education Ministry must consider applying the new grading system to math.”

The Korea Federation of Teacher’s Associations said all subjects on the college entrance exam must be graded on an absolute scale, calling for a comprehensive reform of the college entrance system, with less emphasis on the exam and more on how students performed during their high school years.

The education authorities appear ready to expand the absolute grading system to other subjects as well, according to an official from a local private institute. He asid expansion of the grading system was a necessary step to ensure that the ministry’s new policy bears fruit.

When asked whether the ministry is planning to expand the absolute grading system, Minister Hwang neither denied nor confirmed the speculations but said he would “wait and see if the new policy is effective.”

Earlier in the month, the Education Ministry launched a civilian committee to discuss ways to revamp the annual exam. The committee is headed by Kim Shin-young, a professor of education at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and a known patron of the absolute grading system.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)