Opinion
South Korea’s college entrance exam will seek criminal charges for smart-glasses cheating. Carrying a pair voids that sitting
The education ministry’s response plan dated October 29, 2026. On the November 19 CSAT, wearing them during the exam voids that sitting and blocks next year’s entry. Merely carrying them voids that sitting. Extending the ban from one year to three is a proposed change to the law.
On October 29, South Korea’s education ministry released a response plan for cheating with smart glasses on the College Scholastic Ability Test. Wearing them during the exam voids that sitting and stops eligibility for the next year. Merely carrying them voids that sitting. The plan also moves ahead with criminal complaints and a legal change that would extend the ban to three years.
The CSAT is the shared exam for university admission in South Korea. The sitting for 2027 admission is held on November 19, 2026.
Wearing them also blocks next year. Just carrying them voids that sitting
In July 2026 the ministry named smart glasses as items that cannot be brought into the exam for 2027 admission, and it set out how each case is handled. The October 29 plan keeps that handling as it is.
Using a smart glasses device or similar device during the exam, including simply wearing it, voids that sitting and removes eligibility for the next year. Bringing a pair into the site, or merely having one, voids that sitting. If a proctor asks to check and the person refuses, a review can void that sitting and stop the next year’s exam.
Glasses that only show text are also subject to the check.
The plan says it will urge universities to apply the same strict response, including criminal complaints, and the longer exam ban to their own entrance exams from this year, not only to the CSAT.
Criminal complaints are the policy. A three-year ban is a proposed amendment
The plan treats cheating with smart glasses as an intentional, planned interference with the running of a national exam. The policy is to file complaints and request investigations so that criminal penalties can apply for obstruction of official duties by fraud (a crime of deceiving someone in order to block public duty) and for interference with business. In a case where people systematically sent answers by mobile phone, the sentence was eight months in prison, suspended for two years (2005).
How long eligibility is stopped is set by Article 34(5) of the Higher Education Act. A person who cheats has that exam voided and cannot sit it for one year, the year after the exam year. The ministry is advancing a proposal to extend that one year to three. Three years is not in the statute yet.
Site staff and a situation room take the identification
From this exam, each test site assigns one person to judge whether a pair is smart glasses. That person patrols exam rooms when needed. When a call is difficult, it goes from the school at the site to the metropolitan or provincial education office’s situation room (the contact point that day), and then to the situation rooms of the education ministry and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, which runs the exam. The plan also says it will support teachers who proctored in good faith so they are not blamed or disadvantaged.
For detectors that look for devices by radio, the ministry will check units that specialist agencies are developing and consider placing them at next year’s exam sites.
As a way to keep the exam fair, voiding a sitting just for carrying a pair is understandable. Glasses that only show text stay outside the site too. What the plan covers is the exam site. Until the law changes, the ban remains the current one year, not three.