Hasty argument to abolish the civil service exam

The civil service exam applicants were outraged after “thejoeun mirae,” a gathering of first- and second-term lawmakers of the Minjoo Party, and their think tank the Korea Institute for the Future jointly proposed their plan to abolish the civil service exam, direct entry recruitment of the fifth level officials, and to integrate it with the seventh level recruitment exam on last Thursday. Of course, their proposal was not an official party platform. However, concerns were raised by applicants to the Civil Service about whether they were destined to follow the same path of applicants for the bar exam. A hand-written poster opposing to the proposal of abolishing the civil service exam was appeared at Seoul National University that boasted the highest pass rate of the exam.

As a reason for their proposal of reform, Choi Ji-min, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for the Future, pointed out that most applicants, who passed exams for the seventh and ninth level, were college graduates and they had no discrepancy in ability when comparing to those who passed the exam for fifth level. This was not limited to the seventh level only. A popular belief that the ninth level government employees are high school graduates is not valid anymore. Most civil servants including both central and local government employees are college graduates. A little difference is that a common denominator of college graduates does not have any significance as applicants apply for and pass exams for different level depending on their school ranks.

In France, civil servants who are promoted to higher positions are mostly graduated from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). Schools like ENA are called as Grandes Ecoles. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon once suggested integrating national and public universities across the nation as in the case of France. After the French government standardized its universities and established Universite Paris 1, Paris 2, and others, outstanding students began to study for two more years after graduating high school and entered Grand Ecoles, instead of applying for universities. Most managers or higher level employees of private companies are majored in Business Management or relevant fields at Grand Ecoles, while ordinary college graduates become low level civil servants or rank-and-file workers.

The French government was envied by the world as it officially banned to send text messages relating to work after business hours early this year. France has the shortest working hours with 35 hours per week. However, managers and high level employees of private companies and government officials work late at night or on the weekend at their discretion. That is the reason why the country has no problem of having the shortest working hours in the world. Most officers and men of the Korean military are college graduates. However, the military does not select officers from soldiers. To remove a separate way to be a high-ranking officer, it is better to figure out another way to ensure a sense of responsibility first before proposing a plan.