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The so-called "4-year-old exam," a highly competitive admissions practice for private English-language kindergartens, will be officially banned starting this October. The prohibition covers written, oral, and interview examinations for young children, alongside performance-based evaluations such as tasks or presentations. Private institutions will also be barred from requiring external English proficiency test scores, including TOEIC and TOEFL.

The Ministry of Education announced on July 7 the legislative preview of an enforcement decree amendment for the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Private Teaching Institutes and Extracurricular Lessons. This serves as a follow-up measure to the amended overarching act passed in March, which goes into effect on October 1. The revised law explicitly prohibits private academy operators, instructors, and personal tutors from administering tests or evaluations for the purpose of student recruitment or leveling.

The newly announced enforcement decree specifies the exact boundaries of the prohibited testing activities. It bans written, oral, interview, and practical exams designed to gauge a child's learning capability or prior learning progress, while also blocking alternative performance-based evaluations like problem-solving sessions, homework assignments, or presentations. Utilizing external scorecards, level charts, certificates of completion, or pass notices issued by other institutions is strictly forbidden as well.

The measure aims to dismantle the long-standing practice among premium English-language kindergartens of using pre-admission level tests or external certificates to screen applicants. Educational circles have consistently criticized these competitive selection formats—often dubbed the "4-year-old exam" or "7-year-old exam"—as incompatible with early childhood development stages.

However, diagnostic assessments conducted after a child has enrolled will remain permissible, provided they are meant solely to support educational activities. Once a child has joined an academy or tutoring program, operators may observe their participation in play and activities, or engage in conversations and counseling for diagnostic purposes. Even in these cases, operators must explain the purpose, content, procedure, and feedback method of the diagnosis to guardians and obtain prior consent. Presenting diagnostic outcomes as numerical scores, tiers, rankings, or pass-fail statuses will be banned.

The government has laid out clear penalties for violations. Private academies or tutors caught administering tests for recruitment or level-placement purposes will face administrative fines: 1 million won for the first violation, 2 million won for the second, and 3 million won for the third. A new legal ground will also be established to offer monetary rewards within budgetary limits to whistleblowers who report violations.

Following the legislative preview period, the Ministry of Education plans to finalize and promulgate the enforcement decree to coincide with the overarching law's effective date on October 1.

                                                                                                        Kim Nam-hyung