Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

The Historical Changes and Current Status of High School Admission Selection

In South Korea, high school education has received much attention by policy makers and the public due to its important roles in determining acceptance into higher education institutions. In spite of much attention to high school education, admission procedures and criterion for high schools have been ignored compared to other areas, which also resulted in less number of studies regarding high school admission selection procedures. This study, therefore, aims to examine how high school admission selection has shifted with the changes in high school types in the past and furthermore to analyze how high school admission selection works in practice.

To achieve the purpose of this study, the changes of high school types as well as high school admission selection from 1945 to the early 2010s were examined. Additionally, to analyze the current status of high school admissions of various types of high schools, application procedure, selection criteria, assignment, and impacts of admission selection were examined focusing on special purpose high school for the talented, autonomous private high school, meister high school, vocational high school, and general high schools both in equalized and unequalized areas.