Cho Jeong-sik(42), a star English instructor affiliated with Megastudy, was sent to the prosecution without detention on charges of paying large sums of money to current teachers and purchasing private mock exam questions for high school seniors.This fact was belatedly revealed several months after the incident occurred.

● College Scholastic Ability Test Text and ‘Jokjangge’ Mock Test… Coincidence or Plan?
This incident started with question number 23 in the English section of the 2022 College Scholastic Ability Test.When it was revealed that the passage that appeared on the test at the time was identical to the passage in Cho Jeong-sik’s private mock test except for one sentence, controversy grew in the test-taker community.The passage in question, excerpted from the book ‘Too Much Information(TMI)’, was written by Cass Sunstein, the author of ‘Nudge’, and was unfamiliar material to test-takers.

Immediately after the exam, Jo Jeong-sik’s SNS was flooded with responses such as “I got goosebumps because the exact same passages came out as in the mock exam,” and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation received over 100 objections in 5 days.Some test takers claimed that “the gap between them and students who took the mock exam in advance and listened to the lectures is unfair.”

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection’s investigation, Cho Jeong-sik actually received questions including the relevant passage from a current teacher in advance and reflected them in the September mock exam.In particular, it was confirmed that the relevant passage was received through a person who was close to the teacher who gave the questions.In addition, Cho Jeong-sik is suspected of receiving questions from 21 teachers with experience writing questions for the College Scholastic Ability Test and EBS and producing the mock exam.

Teacher A, who was involved in the problem transaction, provided problems to Jo Jeong-sik for a total of 58 million won from 2021 to 2023.Another teacher, B, is accused of leaking the logic behind deriving correct answers for the CSAT and mock exams.A is known to have sold questions to a total of 11 academies and earned approximately 238 million won.

● Despite being sent to the prosecution, he will still appear on TV
The prosecution applied charges of violating the Prohibition of Solicitation and Bribery Act and obstruction of business to Jo Jeong-sik and sent him to the case without detention on the 17th of last month.
However, the legal representative of the Cho Jeong-sik side is denying the charges, saying, “I did not admit to the fact of the question trading.” Regarding the suspicion of the leak of the answers to the CSAT, they stated, “I obtained the logic of the answers after filming the explanation video.”

As the controversy grows, Jo Jung-sik is currently appearing on Channel A’s entertainment program “Please Give Me Grades: Teachers Season 2.” The production team stated, “We are checking the Jo Jung-sik instructor issue,” but “The roundtable interview scheduled for the 13th will proceed without change.” Jo Jung-sik, math instructor Jeong Seung-je, Korean instructor Yoon Hye-jeong, CP Kim Seung-hoon, and PD Yoon Hye-ji are scheduled to attend the interview that day.


Reporter Yang com -mo hmyang0307@donga

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.