S.Korea silenced as students sit key college exam

Flights were halted, rush hour was rescheduled and parents prayed as hundreds of thousands of students in education-obsessed South Korea sat a crucial college entrance examination Thursday. More than 693,000 students took the day-long standardised College Scholastic Ability Test at 1,207 centres nationwide, the education ministry said. High marks are essential for entry to a top university. This in turn is seen as key to securing a prestigious job -- and even a prestigious marriage in some cases. Aviation authorities said 88 flights would be rescheduled to avoid noisy landings and take-offs during language listening tests in the morning and afternoon. Drivers of vehicles and trains were asked to avoid honking horns near test centres. The stock market's opening and closing was delayed by an hour. Many government offices and private companies also opened late to ease rush-hour traffic so that students could arrive at test centres on time. A police patrol car, siren blaring, was seen escorting one latecomer outside Seoul's Whimoon high school. "I felt under the weather and got up late this morning. There were no cabs in the street and I got panicky. Then I saw a street banner telling latecomers to call (emergency number) 112," the student told Yonhap news agency. In the central city of Daejeon, a 19-year-old boy who failed to enter college last year and was about to take the exam a second time was found dead early Thursday in an apparent suicide, Yonhap reported. He was said to have left a message of apology to his parents. Exam day is nerve-racking not only for students but also for parents, who crowded churches and Buddhist temples to pray for good results. Mothers were seen praying outside the closed gates of Seoul's Kyunggi high school, one of the test centres. They attached pieces of paper inscribed with prayers to the gates. On the eve of the exam, department stores and bakeries were crowded by well-wishers who bought gift sets of chocolates and rice cakes seeking good luck. Superstition has it that sticky rice cakes help students cling on to knowledge. In a typical scene, junior students outside Seoul's Kyungbock high school shouted encouragement and handed out cups of coffee as senior colleagues entered the school to sit the exam. To prevent cheating, students were banned from carrying electronic devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players and electronic dictionaries. At a centre in Seoul's central Jongno district one applicant was caught carrying a mobile phone hidden under bandages wrapped around his body, when a metal detector went off. Critics say the obsession with prestige universities is misplaced. Chang Eun-Sook, who heads a pressure group called the National Association of Parents for Cham (True) Education, faulted the national obsession with academic backgrounds and alumni connections. "First of all, we need to remove the stratification of colleges," she told AFP. She suggested that, starting with state-funded institutions, universities should introduce a system of joint degrees regardless of where a student has studied.