Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback National Human Rights Commission of Korea - Complaint Summaries

Discrimination on the Grounds of Educational History in Recruiting Public [2007] KRNHRC 6 (1 January 2007)

Servants through a Special Limited Competition
Citizen "Park" filed a complaint with the Commission that "L" Administration Office
discriminated on the ground of educational background in a limited recruitment
competition by forcing applicants who applied for Grade-7 Food Administrators to write
down the name of schools they had attended and allowing only people with a master's
degree or higher to apply for a position with "L" Administration Office.
"L" Administration Office said that there were two kinds of public official recruitment,
such as an open competition for all and limited competition for experts with licenses or
degrees in some areas including food hygiene, pharmaceutical care, medical technology
and scientific research. It insisted that it adopted a limited competition to recruit people
with certain degrees in order to hire only those with knowledge and expertise. The Civil
Service Commission claimed that the general principle was to prevent discrimination on
the ground of educational background in the public official employment exam, but it was
possible to apply the education history limit, in accordance with Article 16.1.10 of the
Public Official Recruitment Decree.

However, the Commission replied that considering recruitment practices in Korea, the
respondent might provide favorable treatment to applicants who graduated from certain
schools, if applicants wrote down the names of the schools they attended. It also said that
it did not think that there was reasonable cause for the respondent to request applicants to
write down the names of the university and high school they attended, and that education
level was the only essential qualification to fulfill the duty of food administrator. In
addition, the Commission stated that six government organizations including the
Ombudsman of Korea presented multiple qualification standards such as license, research
or work experience and degree that the applicant must meet when they recruited new
officials, and that such multiple qualification standards fully met the objectives of limited
competitions to recruit experts without discrimination on the ground of educational background.
The Commission concluded that the request for applicants to write down the names of
schools they attended on the application form or restrict some applicants from applying for
some positions in a limited competition to recruit public officials constituted
discrimination and a violation of the right to equality. It recommended that the President of
"L" Administration Office change the application form to ensure that applicants do not
need to write down the names of schools they attended, and to improve limited competition
standards to ensure that educational background is not the only standard for recruitment. In
addition, the Commission recommended the Chief of the Civil Service Commission to
revise the clauses of the Public Official Recruitment Decree that allow government
organizations to recruit officials only on the ground of educational background in limited
competitions.