The recent uproar over whether students at schools for Asian ethnic minorities should be granted equal access to national universities has highlighted the extent to which such institutions have been set apart within the nation's education system.
Amid protests from the Asian schools, the education ministry decided March 28 to reconsider its plan to allow graduates of international schools accredited by three Western education organizations to take national university entrance exams without having to take a separate qualifying test, called the "daiken."
Officials at the Education, Culture, Science, Sports and Technology Ministry said they will go back to the drawing board and consider extending the exemption to other ethnic schools.