Discrimination in the employment and promotion of public workers based on their academic background will likely be reduced within this year.
The government on Friday decided to abolish or ease minimum academic requirements for 316 public jobs and remove discrimination in wages and
promotions against low-educated workers in 92 jobs, the prime minister's office said.
The decision, made in a weekly state policy coordination meeting, is aimed at weakening the academic factor in the assessment of civil servants' work ability. This tendency has been blamed for parents' enormous spending on private education and the overheated competition for college entrance.
Ninety-one research jobs, which currently require a master's or higher degree, will now be open to all people with a degree above a two-year junior college, the office said.
The government also decided to gradually reduce preferential treatment on four-year university graduates in the acquirement of national
qualifications, it said.
"We should start by removing all regulations based on academic degrees existing in the public sector to remove discrimination on those less
educated," Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said before presiding over the meeting. "We should lay the groundwork for making a society weighing on
one's ability (rather than academic background)," he stressed.
Chung said he will ask business leaders to follow the government's lead.