The first thing parents look at on a high school report card is the grade. But now that the high school credit system applies in full, there is one box that has to be checked before the grade. Whether the letter I appears in the achievement column. An I does not mean a low grade. It means no credit was awarded for that subject. Because it is a question of passing rather than of performance, the response required is different too. Here is exactly what the completion thresholds are, what the school does when a student falls short, and what a guardian should check and when.

In a credit system, completion is not the same as a grade

Under the old year-based system, taking a subject produced a grade, and a low grade still counted as having finished the course. The credit system works differently. Each subject carries completion thresholds, and the credit only becomes yours once you clear them. Fall short and the subject is recorded as not completed, with an I entered in the achievement column of the school record.

Graduation hangs on the same mechanism. A student must earn at least 192 credits across the three years to graduate. Subjects with no credit awarded therefore accumulate against the graduation requirement itself. That is a categorically different problem from a low grade.

There are two gates - two-thirds attendance and 40% achievement

The completion standard runs on two axes.

• Attendance rate - at least two-thirds of the subject's scheduled sessions
• Academic achievement rate - at least 40%

Both have to be cleared. Excellent marks do not rescue insufficient attendance, and full attendance does not rescue an achievement rate under 40%. The 40% figure here is not a low band on the grading scale; it is a separate line called the minimum achievement standard, and schools determine it by combining written assessments and performance assessments.

Common subjects and elective subjects are judged differently

This is where most of the confusion sits. The two thresholds do not apply identically to every subject.

In other words, the subjects where a sub-40% achievement rate produces a non-completion are the common subjects. For a Grade 10 student that typically means Korean, mathematics, English, integrated social studies and integrated science. Elective subjects meet the completion requirement on attendance alone. Achievement levels and rank grades are still calculated for electives, so clearing the completion bar and scoring well remain separate matters. How subject choice reshapes the report card itself is dealt with separately in subject selection under the credit system.

Two-thirds attendance erodes faster than people expect

Under the 2022 revised national curriculum, one credit corresponds to 16 sessions of 50 minutes. A four-credit subject is therefore 64 sessions in a semester, and missing 21 or more of them puts that subject in breach of the attendance requirement.

For a subject scheduled four times a week, that is a little over five weeks of absence. For a student facing a long hospital stay or frequent early departures, it is a live risk. And there is one thing that has to be understood in advance: some absences count towards attendance and some do not. How sick leave and unexcused absence are handled, and the form each takes on the school record, is set out in how attendance is recorded; where a family trip takes a student out of school, the procedure for having it recognised as attendance is in approved field trip attendance, and it has to be arranged beforehand. It cannot be tidied up afterwards.

The school moves during the semester - preventive support

Schools are not structured to simply report the outcome at the end of term. Minimum achievement standard support runs in two stages: preventive support and supplementary support.

Preventive support identifies students likely to fall short while the semester is still running and puts help in place. Diagnostic assessments, first written assessment results, assignment submission and attendance are used to select students, and after-school sessions, individual tasks and counselling are attached. The point that matters for a guardian is this: when this notice arrives, it is the signal. Read it as an optional invitation, skim it and file it, and the same problem returns at the end of term as a non-completion.

Falling short at the end of term - supplementary support and additional learning

For students who do not reach the threshold once end-of-term results are processed, there are two routes.

• Supplementary support - for students whose academic achievement rate fell below 40%. Instruction focuses on the core content of the subject.
• Additional learning - for students who cleared 40% achievement but fell short of the two-thirds attendance rate. It is a separate activity designed to support credit completion.

Once that process is finished, completion is confirmed through the school's academic performance management committee review. How it is run and how completion is recognised vary according to metropolitan and provincial office of education implementation guidelines and each school's own academic performance management rules, so the exact terms must be confirmed in the regulations of the school the student attends. Some schools run it during the vacation, others schedule separate periods during term.

Which year groups this applies to

Application is being phased in year group by year group.

On the 2026 basis that means Grades 10 and 11. Grade 12 still sits partly under the previous arrangements, so the rules can differ between siblings in the same household. What actually changed in classrooms from March 2026 is collected in the March 2026 changes.

What a guardian should check now

• 1. Identify which of your child's subjects are common subjects. Those are the ones carrying the 40% achievement threshold.
• 2. Check cumulative absences and missed sessions per subject once mid-semester. How close it sits to one-third is the whole question.
• 3. If the student has to be away from school, arrange attendance recognition in advance.
• 4. If a preventive support notice arrives, have the student attend. It is not an optional activity; it is the last stretch before a non-completion.
• 5. Download the academic performance management rules from the school website and check when supplementary support runs and how completion is recognised.
• 6. When the report card arrives, look at the I marking in the achievement column before the grade.

This article draws on the Ministry of Education's "Credit Completion Recognition Standards and Minimum Achievement Standard Support for the High School Credit System from 2025" and on metropolitan and provincial office of education operating guides (common subjects: two-thirds attendance and 40% academic achievement; elective and liberal arts subjects: two-thirds attendance; creative experiential activities: two-thirds of instructional days; one credit as 16 sessions; 192 credits for graduation; achievement below 40% recorded as I; the distinction between preventive support, supplementary support and additional learning; phased application from Grade 10 in 2025 to all year groups in 2027). Confirmed August 2026. How supplementary support is run and how completion is recognised vary by metropolitan and provincial implementation guidelines and by individual school rules, so final confirmation should be based on the academic performance management regulations of the school your child attends and on guidance from the homeroom and subject teachers.