Dreams and Hopes Guaranteed by State Policy: DPRK

-Country of Education

September 25, 2012 is the day when the law of the Supreme People’s Assembly “On Enforcing Universal 12-Year Compulsory Education” was promulgated at the 6th session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Right to education is the most basic and important right among all the rights that people are given by the state and society.

However, on the worldwide scale, this right is not fully ensured yet.

Several countries are said to introduce “compulsory education”.

But this does not include all children across the society as it has many restrictions.

Satellite communication-based and Internet-based tele-education is being applied as the study-while-working system - a form of higher education is developing.

But it aims at commercializing education and pursuing profits, thus, the working masses cannot share in the benefit.

In our country, under the warm care of peerless great men, all people including the preschool children are fully provided with their rights to education.

As early as in the time of anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, President Kim Il Sung provided precious experience and tradition of unique free education system.

Based on this, he saw that the people-oriented educational policies are implemented after the liberation of the country.

Thus, he set a brilliant example of universal free education system.

In our country, under the tender loving care of President Kim Il Sung, compulsory primary education was introduced for the first time in 1956.

Compulsory secondary education was introduced in 1958 and free education was introduced in all educational sectors since 1959.

The Party allowed no delay in posterity work even during tough times when state expenses would be vast.

Thus under its warm benevolence, the universal compulsory nine-year technical education and the universal 11-year compulsory education systems were established in 1967 and 1972 respectively.

And on September 1, 1975, these were put into effect full-scale all across the country.

All expenses for primary education including preschool education, secondary education and social education are entirely covered by the state, therefore students here study without knowing any form of “registration fee” or “school expense”.

Herein lies the advantage of the compulsory education system in our country.

On September 25, 2012, at the 6th session of the 12th SPA, the law of the SPA “On Enforcing Universal 12-Year Compulsory Education” was proclaimed again.

This was another expression of great love for the coming generation - the great pride and hope of the country.

UNESCO analyzed that a one-year increase in the education period would bring a great increase in the economic growth rate as the annual growth rate of scientific and technical knowledge continues to rise in the present era.

In light of such facts, it would be easy enough for everyone to guess about how much more powerful our country would become with the implementation of the universal 12-year compulsory education system.

As we hold in high esteem respected Comrade Kim Jong Un who set up the one and only socialist education system with a noble view of love for the future, the world will witness the appearance of the DPRK which would shine as a socialist education power and a strong country with many prodigious talents in the near future.

-Talents are Given Full Play

Children with exceptional talents are found more and more today, giving a bright picture of the socialist fatherland where all the people live in one large family with respected Marshal Kim Jong Un as their father.

Today’s reality where all children are giving full play to their hopes and talents cannot be thought of apart from the devoted efforts of President Kim Il Sung who had always concerned himself with the provision of best educational conditions for our children.

President Kim Il Sung directed constant and deep attention to the education of the coming generation. He saw to it that a national exhibition of children’s works and teaching aids was held in 1957 when the postwar reconstruction was yet in full swing, and personally visited the exhibition hall despite his tight schedule with many state affairs.

While being briefed by the lecturer on several pictures and artworks that reflected young minds, President Kim Il Sung carried a smile of satisfaction all along. He took time to look around the children’s pictures and spoke highly of them for their variety of motifs and fine quality.

Then he noticed that the colour of the crayon used for drawing was not good enough. He turned serious and said that our officials should feel responsible for failing to provide our children and students with good crayons. He then said with warmth that we should build a wonderful stationery factory and provide the children with high-quality stationery so that they can give full play to their abilities.

He also said that even though the country was undergoing a belt-tightening period to recover from the war and directing all resources to building the foundations of socialism, the upbringing of younger generations sound and well deserved much importance. He earnestly told the officials in the education field to nurture the talents of the preschool and school children by intensifying art education and to pay close attention to the stationery to be used by the children.

The superiority of the socialist system that we are striving to build lies in that it enables everyone to learn and give full play to their hopes and talents, President Kim Il Sung said and earnestly called on the officials to provide our children with all that they need.

Later, thanks to the considerate care of President Kim Il Sung, all children across the country were provided with stationery of different colours and shapes free of charge by the state - all produced in stationery factories built in Pyongyang and other parts of the country.

The desire of President Kim Il Sung who, as a caring father of all children across the country, had made continued strenuous efforts to give nice stationery to our children, has been translated into gratifying reality by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un. Several modern factories like the Ryongbong Stationery Factory and Sonamu Stationery Factory well-known for their “Haebaragi” (sunflower) and “Durumi” (crane) brands now produce high-quality stationery to be supplied to our children on a regular basis.

Thanks to the loving care of peerlessly great men who would spare nothing for the children regarding them as the kings and queens of the country, children in all parts of the country are giving full play to their talents enjoying the benefits of the most superior socialist education system.

-Morning Dawns with Love for Future

There are countless stories telling of the love of respected Comrade Kim Jong Un for younger generation.

One of them is about the meticulous guidance he gave, staying up all night, on improving the quality of the dairy products for children.

At the crack of dawn on 15 September 2021, respected Comrade Kim Jong Un made a phone call to a senior official of the Pyongyang City Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

He said that he had just put the trial product of the infant formula in water and tasted it but the formula failed to give the genuine flavor and colour.

Then he made meticulous comments on its shortcomings quality-wise.

At the historic 3rd plenary meeting of 8th Central Committee of the WPK, respected Comrade Kim Jong Un had set forth the task of supplying dairy products and other nutritious food to our children and adopted it as the Party policy. In hearty response to this call, Pyongyang City finally put in place a new dairy production line at the cost of repeated failures, and reported to the Party on the production of the first trial product.

It was that infant formula that respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was referring to over the phone very early in the morning.

He said that the officials in the relevant sectors including the foodstuff industry sector should study the trial product, if they had any left in stock, find out how it all came about and earnestly instructed that the executive members of the WPK Pyongyang City Committee also taste the infant formula.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un gave another call after a short while and told him about the dissolved state of the infant formula and also the technical matters related to its production.

Then, he told him to check the taste, color and solubility of the infant formula again to get down to the bottom of the failure and report back.

As if it were not enough, respected Comrade Kim Jong Un said in earnest to start production only after identifying the cause of the quality failure and perfecting the production line.

He stressed further that no defects should be allowed when it comes to the infant formula for our children.

His request was a manifestation of the great motherly love that anything meant for our children should be the very best in the world.

Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, even at the crack of dawn when all the mothers in the country were fast asleep, could not afford a rest but greeted the day with unremitting dedication to the production of better quality milk for our children.

It was not the story restricted to that day only.

Every morning on this land dawns with his noble love for future and he is making strenuous efforts and dedication for the sake of our children’s happiness and bright future of our fatherland.

Under the warm care and protection of such a great man, our children are growing up free from any envy, heralding the bright future of the country.