Achievements of the DPRK in the field of education-contribution of Li Jizheng, of International Solidarity Group with the DPRK

 

 

The Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK attach great importance to the formation of socialist construction. In order to support socialist economic construction, they are constantly reforming the education system and education systems to develop various talents needed for socialist construction, which is conducive to the development of socialist construction in South Korea.

 

The DPRK regards education as one of the fundamental issues, from achieving the success of the revolution and the future destiny of the nation. No matter what era or what nationality, without education, it will not be able to achieve progress and national prosperity. The issue of education was raised as a more important issue in the newly independent countries, freed from imperialist colonial enslavement. Before the liberation, Korea was a Japanese colony, and education was very backward. In order to support spiritual slaves and stifle Korean national culture, the Japanese colonialists tried their best to promote the education of enslavement. In August 1945, Korea was liberated . At that time, there were only 1,000 elementary schools, 43 junior high schools, three technical high schools, and six teachers' colleges in the northern part of the Korean peninsula. There was no high school and university. The only university - Keijo Imperial University is located in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, in Seoul. There were very few Korean intellectuals and teachers. 65% of school-age children cannot attend school, and over 80% of the population is illiteracy.

 

After Korea's liberation began, the Provisional Government of North Korea promoted the enslavement of the political Japanese colonial entity, introduced a patriotic democratic line of education, and carried out a series of traditional education reforms while actively pursuing a military movement to eradicate illiteracy. In December 1946, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea promulgated the "Regulations on the education system of educational institutions of North Korea", which the Korean people develop, for the first time in the history of their education, created a complete education system from elementary school to university. In September 1949, the Fourth Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea promulgated the "Decree on the universal introduction of the system of primary compulsory education." According to this decree, from September 1, 1950, compulsory primary education will be fully introduced in all regions of North Korea (due to the outbreak of the Korean War, it was not introduced on time). As of September 1949, there were 3,882 elementary schools, 926 junior high schools, 170 junior high schools, 17 junior technical schools, and 55 secondary technical schools in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. 15 universities have also been established. By March 1949, illiteracy was virtually eliminated from the northern part of the Korean peninsula.

 

During the Fatherland Liberation War, the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK restructured the work of teaching in scientific institutions under difficult conditions in order to adapt the teaching work to the wartime system. On the one hand, the government has widely adopted the educational form of training courses, and on the other hand, invited the people of the whole country to participate in the war to repair the bombed schools, so that students who have lost their technological institutions can continue to receive education, at the same time also sent a large number of students studying in China, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to prepare for the post-war reconstruction of the national economy and the needs of socialist construction.

 

After the armistice, the national economy of North Korea is in dire need of a large number of scientific talents for reconstruction and construction. Comrade Kim Il Sung put forward the "basic direction in the work of education" in his report at the Central Plenum of the Workers' Party of Korea in August 1953, calling for concentration of efforts on strengthening higher and technical education, as well as on training a large number of ethnic cadres. To this end, the Workers' Party of Korea recommended to the Supreme People's Assembly that in 1955 the Decree on Strengthening Technical Education be adopted. According to this decree, many secondary schools were transformed into technical schools. In April 1956, the Workers' Party of Korea held its third congress. At this congress, the task was put forward to continue the promotion of the socialist revolution within the five-year plan, to carry out agricultural cooperation and the socialist transformation of private industry and trade. Comrade Kim Il Sung noted in his report: “At present, 1,942,000 students are studying in the educational institutions of the Republic. Now 4,800 students are studying at various universities and technical colleges in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and other people's democracies. After the war, there were more than 37,000 students in the Republic who graduated from secondary schools and various technical schools, and 6,200 students graduated from universities. Primary universal compulsory education was introduced in 1956, secondary universal compulsory education was introduced in November 1958, and free universal compulsory education was introduced in April 1959. As of the end of the five-year plan, North Korea had 2.5 million students in more than 8,000 educational institutions, the number of universities increased to 78, and the number of students reached more than 97,000. There are 133,000 engineers, specialists and technicians working in various sectors of the national economy. In November 1966, the sixth plenary session of the Third Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea passed a decree establishing nine years of universal compulsory education from April 1967. The number of universities has increased from 78 to 129, and 376 new secondary technical schools have been built. In July 1972, the fourth plenum of the Central Committee of the fifth convocation of the Workers' Party of Korea adopted a decree: from September 1972, 11-year universal compulsory education will be introduced. In September 2012, the sixth plenum of the 12th Supreme People's Assembly adopted a decree introducing 12 years of universal compulsory education. This decree legally guarantees the promotion of secondary general education to a new and higher level, so that the new generation of the DPRK can enjoy the right to education at a higher level.

 

The emblem of the Workers' Party of Korea consists of a crossed hammer and sickle with a brush. The bronze statue of Chollima towering in Pyongyang is also a symbol of the North Korean spirit. The rider on Chollima picks up a book. Both brushes and books are symbols of knowledge. This shows that the DPRK attaches great importance to intellectuals. Through the policy of respecting and cherishing the intelligentsia pursued by the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK, many intellectuals defected to North Korea from South Korea and abroad with patriotic aspirations and made immortal contributions to the socialist construction of the DPRK. Now new intellectuals, experts and specialists continue to grow, the Party is vigorous, and the Republic is flourishing.

 

In general, the DPRK has trained a large number of scientific and technical talents and promoted the development of socialist construction in accordance with the guidelines of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government. The practice of North Korea has proved that the development of education in North Korea is a strategic task for developing the national economy and promoting socialist construction. There is no doubt that their experience and practice are worthy of study and their achievements are worthy of praise.

 

We firmly believe that under the wise leadership of great Comrade Kim Jong Un and under the mighty leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, the DPRK will make new progress in the field of education, and Juche Korea will continuously go from victory to victory!