Education stakeholders in North Jeolla Province are warning that the Jeonbuk Office of Education’s reported plan to recruit zero master teachers for the 2026 school year undermines efforts to strengthen teacher assessment expertise and raise student achievement.

At the heart of the dispute is South Korea’s 2022 revised national curriculum, which centers on an achievement-level grading system and competency-based education. With 2025 viewed as an inflection point, schools are expected to move decisively away from rote, knowledge-heavy instruction toward higher-order, creative thinking.

While high schools currently operate a hybrid model that mixes five-band relative grading with achievement grading, educators say the latter is the goal—and the former only a transition. Yet, according to first-semester 2025 achievement distributions in Jeonbuk, the share of students at the top “A” level remains low while “D” and “E” rates are unusually high. Grade inflation in elective career-choice subjects is also cited as a concern. Critics argue these patterns reflect weak implementation of teaching, learning, and assessment aligned to achievement standards.

Jeonbuk’s flagship initiatives—concept-based inquiry learning and the IB program—both depend on achievement-based evaluation. That model is considered complete only when higher-order thinking is assessed through constructed-response and essay-style tasks, with students explaining what they have learned in their own words. To ensure validity and reliability in such assessments, schools require practice-based professional development linked directly to classroom assessment and systematic efforts to build teachers’ evaluation expertise.

The province has attempted to build capacity in recent years, but observers say one-off, theory-heavy workshops have limited impact. They call instead for expanded hands-on training that directly connects instruction and assessment, as well as diagnostics-based, tailored PD that meets teachers where they are. In this model, master teachers—experienced educators tasked with mentoring peers, modeling lessons, and supporting school-level research and feedback cycles—are considered the pivotal actors.

Against this backdrop, the Jeonbuk Office of Education’s move to select no master teachers for 2026—the first such instance since appointments began in 2012—has drawn sharp criticism. Although the office has cited nationwide teacher-workforce reductions, opponents argue the freeze creates a glaring policy contradiction: the administration publicly champions “professional growth” and “assessment innovation,” yet withdraws the human infrastructure needed to deliver both. They warn the decision could impede the quality of constructed-response assessment, stall evaluation reforms, and set back efforts to rebuild trust in public education.

Advocates for change urge the province to focus on school-level assessment capacity rather than short-term test results. Their recommendations include:

Expand practice-based PD that links lessons and assessments, and establish a system to track and manage teacher expertise over time.

Secure specialist coaches who can guide teachers’ assessment literacy and curriculum interpretation; brief, one-off lectures are insufficient—sustained coaching is essential.

Institutionalize school-based research, feedback, and consulting, ensuring continuous cycles of design, implementation, and refinement for assessments.

Supporters frame the push for robust constructed-response assessment not as a mere change in testing format but as a return to the core purpose of education: connecting curriculum and assessment so students develop and demonstrate deep understanding. Achieving that, they say, requires restoring and expanding the role of master teachers as on-site experts who can coach colleagues, curate exemplars, and ensure consistency and fairness across classrooms.

With the 2025–2026 transition period approaching, educators are calling on the Jeonbuk Office of Education to reconsider the 2026 recruitment freeze and present a forward-leaning plan to staff schools with the expertise needed to implement achievement-based evaluation at scale. Without that commitment, they warn, the province risks forfeiting both assessment professionalism and a rare opportunity to lift student learning.