A business executive yesterday demanded the government give priority to improving college students’ level of English proficiency, saying that most college graduates deserve an "F grade" for their English skills.

Kim Yoon, the education committee head of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), told Kim Shin-il, deputy prime minister of education and human resources, that a new testing system for English is urgently needed to improve the language skills of students.

"People worry that there are not enough jobs for college graduates. But in fact, companies have trouble in hiring them because their English skill level is grade F and is not helpful at work at all," he said on Friday when the minister visited the federation headquarters in Yoido, Seoul.

"In order to solve this problem, universities should have more freedom and I hope the Education-Human Resources Ministry will help them," he said.

The committee head also demanded the government raise the tax deduction rate on corporate donations to universities from the current 75 percent to 100 percent.

In response, the education minister said that the government is devising a new nationwide English test to replace the current TOEIC and TOEFL tests, which focus on reading and writing ability, not on conversational skills.

"It is true that the current English education system in South Korea is too scholarly and is not suitable for everyday life," he said. "In the future, we will try to balance education between conversational and written English."

He also said that the government will try to give maximum freedom to universities regarding their admission and education systems as long as this does not damage education at lower-grade schools.

Earlier this month, the ministry said it is conducting a feasibility study on launching a new English test, composed of four parts--reading, listening, speaking and writing. It estimated some 2 million Koreans would take the exam every year.

So far, TOEIC, short for the Test of English for International Communication, has been most widely used as the official English test in job recruiting in South Korea since it was first introduced in 1982.

As it only evaluates the reading and listening skills of the test takers, companies have complained that it does not reflect the actual English skill of the participants. An increasing number of companies began to recruit new workers through person-to-person interviews and internship programs over the past years.