According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the Education Ministry unveiled a ‘response plan on cheating with smart glasses in the CSAT’ on the 29th. Examinees wearing smart glasses with artificial-intelligence functions have recently been caught one after another at universities’ own essay exams, and the plan is meant to keep the same from happening in the CSAT. The date of this year’s CSAT was not confirmed in that report.

The core is tougher punishment. Under the current Higher Education Act, an examinee who cheats on the CSAT has the exam voided and is barred from sitting it for one year the following year. The ministry intends to pursue extending this to three years; the article describes it as being at the stage of ‘pursuit’, not as settled. The legal amendment process and the timing of enforcement were not given.

Criminal complaints and dedicated exam-site staff

The ministry treats cheating with smart glasses as an intentional, premeditated obstruction of the normal running of a national exam, and plans to file complaints or request investigations on charges such as obstruction of official duties by deceit or obstruction of business. As a reference case, the Kyunghyang Shinmun cited a 2005 cheater who exchanged answers by mobile phone in an organized scheme and received eight months in prison, suspended for two years.

On-site responses will change as well. From this year’s CSAT, one dedicated staff member will be assigned to each of the 1,312 exam sites nationwide to judge whether an item is smart glasses. If a proctor finds a suspicious item, the dedicated staff member decides, and if it cannot be settled on site, further judgment is sought through the situation rooms of the provincial education offices, the Education Ministry and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

Protecting proctors and university-run exams

So that teachers who supervise against cheating are not harmed, the ministry will widen the coverage and the claim period of the proctor liability insurance for incidents during exams from this year. Legally imposed damages, attorney fees and litigation costs arising from incidents in the course of duty are covered.

In July the ministry had already listed smart glasses as a banned item at the CSAT, providing that wearing or using them voids that exam and strips the examinee of eligibility the next year. The new plan takes that step further. The ministry will also actively urge universities to apply the same firm response, including criminal penalties and a longer ban on sitting the exam, to their own exams, not just the CSAT.