Grammar
-도록 하다
Meaning
Advanceddorog-hada
Says that someone put a rule or an instruction in place, without naming who has to carry it out. 각 학교가 일정을 정하도록 했습니다 tells you a decision was made that schools would set their own schedules, but the decider stays outside the sentence. This is how orders to subordinate offices and clauses in regulations are worded in Korean.
Form
Take a verb stem, add -도록, then 하다: 정하다 becomes 정하도록 하다. In news it almost always appears in the past, 하도록 했다. The person or body who must act is marked with 이/가 inside the clause, and the one giving the instruction is usually left out entirely.
Examples
각 학교가 일정을 정하도록 했습니다.
It was provided that each school would set its own schedule.
각 부서가 미리 점검하도록 했습니다.
Each department was instructed to check in advance.
주요 사건에서는 검사가 피의자를 직접 면담하도록 했습니다.
In major cases, prosecutors are directed to meet suspects in person.
Common mistakes & nuance
Because the instructing party is left out, this construction can hide who is responsible. When you meet 하도록 했다 in an article, ask who did the directing — it is often the ministry or the province named at the top of the piece, and the sentence quietly assumes you remember. In statutes it also signals that the detail is being delegated and has not been fixed yet.
Similar grammar
- -게 하다
Both mean making something happen. -게 하다 is direct causation with a named causer ('I made him go'). -도록 하다 is institutional: a rule was set so that something would be done, and the causer is usually invisible.
- -아/어야 하다
-아/어야 하다 states an obligation as a fact ('must'). -도록 하다 reports that someone created that obligation, so it has an author behind it even when unnamed.