Foreign language high schools in South Korea on Friday decided not to require students to take a U.S.-based English proficiency test before applying to their schools following the recent controversy and lawsuit over the test administrator's alleged abuse of its dominant position here.

The decision came at a meeting of principals from 29 foreign language high schools throughout the country.

Currently, students applying for foreign language high schools are usually required to submit a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score.

The test's U.S. administrator, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), has been widely criticized here for neglecting South Korean applicants after it announced that its computer-based tests will be not be available in South Korea during July.

The ETS had previously said July tests will not be available in South Korea and Japan due to technical problems, but later said the tests will not be available only in South Korea.

A South Korean lawyer on Thursday filed an official request with the country's Fair Trade Commission (FTC), calling for a probe into the ETS' alleged "abuse of its dominant position" here.

FTC chairman Kwon Oh-seung has said his commission will look into recent actions taken by the ETS and that "appropriate actions will be taken" if the fair trade act has been violated.

"We made the decision so the students will not have to go through the process of applying for TOEFL, which recently caused serious problems, and to help ease burdens of their parents having to spend excessive amounts of money," Yoo Jae-hee, head of the foreign language high school principals' meeting, told reporters.

Every year tens of thousands of South Koreans reportedly take the U.S.-based English proficiency test, which is available only through the U.S. administrator.

Seoul, April 20 (Yonhap News)