Controversy is escalating between state education authorities and a parents' group as a nationwide test for middle school students is slated to take place tomorrow.

The Egalitarian Education Advocacy Group is set to boycott the exam for the second time and take students to an art gallery despite the recent dismissal of seven teachers over a similar event in October.

Under revised rules, local education authorities are required to disclose the evaluation results, including the share of those falling behind basic levels. The test results are expected to reveal a regional gap in students' proficiency levels.

The parents' group, which took 100 students to a botanical garden on test days in October, claimed it is against students undertaking a universal exam because it will only heighten competition among schools or regions in order to climb in national rankings.

It plans to stage a protest in front of the Seoul Education Office today to ask city education officials to put an immediate stop to the exam.

Seoul education authorities, however, confirmed their stance that they will strictly punish all teachers authorizing such students' actions.

"This exam was notified from the beginning of this year, so students going on a gallery field trip could be only accepted as a refusal of an evaluation test," a Seoul education official said.

"We will stay true to our punishment standards for the teachers and mark the leave as an absence for all involved students."

A total of seven schoolteachers were fired after allowing their students to boycott state-run tests administered for all third graders, sixth graders, eighth graders and high school freshmen in October. It was the first test of its kind in the past decade.

In a measure to fight the "unfair firings," members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union said they will publicize the inappropriateness of the issue by delivering letters to parents on why the universal exams should not be conducted.

"We will also develop organization-wide measures to deal with the improper dismissals," Han Man-jung, policy chief of KTU said.

By Cho Ji-hyun