What school ideas of North Korea can be useful in Russia

At the Pyongyang Palace of Congresses, a bilateral meeting was held with the Minister of Education of the DPRK, Lee Yong Chol, during which a number of key topics in the field of education were discussed: studying the Russian language in the DPRK, sharing experience in the field of education and artificial intelligence. The parties confirmed their desire to continue developing cooperation in the educational sphere, the text says.

MK studied the system of education in North Korea and tried to try it on modern Russian. The conclusion is unambiguous: to go forward, armed with the experience of the DPRK, you need to take a step back. Or two.

The education system in the country of the three Kims was written off from the school curriculum of the USSR and rooted in local soil. It had its own characteristics. This is primarily poverty, closeness and militarism.

To begin with, curtaining in North Korean schools is a perfectly normal practice. Education is financed in a very reduced form. Payment for repairs, purchase of equipment and those notorious curtains falls on the shoulders of parents. There are no free breakfasts or school textbooks.

Labor camps and trips to potatoes in Korean schools are as much part of the educational process as, say, we have “Talk about the Important”. As tourists recall, which, by the way, is becoming more and more in this most closed country, in October it is difficult to see school-age children in the city. They're all going to pick up rice. And the rest of the year, children do not sit idly by. Labor education is practiced every day. On-duty workers stay after school and clean the classroom, school and yard.

The geography of labor education is not limited to an educational institution. Schoolchildren are sent to help adults in garbage collection, work on a construction site or in nearby collective farms. Work activities are called “extracurricular activities”. The idea is somewhat reminiscent of Soviet subbotniks, but they occur much more often than on April 22, Lenin’s birthday.

Ideology, of course. It permeates the entire education system of the DPRK. The political life of the country is devoted to several school subjects in the program. They are called differently, but the essence is the same – the glorification of all three Kims who lead the country. At one time, the biography of Kim Il-sung’s wife was also studied, but then this case was canceled.

The high school program includes the disciplines “Socialist Morality”, “History of the Crimes of American and Japanese Imperialism in Korea”, “The Great Kim Il Sung”, “Communist Ethics”. Teaching Korean doctrine begins in kindergarten.

There are several household bans associated with the name of the three great Kims. You can not dry linen and clothes on the balconies facing the square with monuments to the leaders, you can not take pictures of monuments to the leaders, “cutting” the legs, it is forbidden to re-photograph portraits without frames. All children know this and respect it.

Children’s and youth organizations, by analogy with the Octobers, pioneers and Komsomol members, still exist here. Participation is compulsory.

North Korean schools also have a state exam, analogous to the exam. Its results do not allow you to immediately enter the university, as we have, but only give such a right. Further, the applicant passes quite traditional exams, as in the USSR. But without good grades in ideological subjects in the certificate of higher education is out of the question. Just like average grades, you can’t find a bad institution. Higher education is considered elite. Only about 15% of graduates rise to this level.

Most of yesterday's students go to the army. Both boys and girls. Service here is long. Men serve 10 years, women 4 years.

Those who do enter the university, waiting for a strict distribution. As a rule, most specialists work in this direction all their lives. Changing jobs in North Korea is possible, but difficult. It is not enough to write a letter of resignation. The past and the future must agree with each other and give good.

Distribution in the DPRK is not only in universities, but also in schools.

They have studied in North Korea for 12 years. School days are everything except Sunday.

Questions are raised by the cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence announced at the meeting of Sergey Kravtsov and the Minister of Education of the DPRK Lee Yong Chol. Until recently, the internet was banned in North Korea. And so are computers. They were not even in schools for poverty or ideological reasons. They wrote that the basics of computer literacy were taught on layouts of the keyboard made of wood. Now things have changed. There is already access to the Internet, but only to the national closed network of Kwangmyong. And parents go to computers. Most likely, the talks between the two ministers were about Russian technologies in the field of AI. But will they serve the educational process? So far, only the use of artificial intelligence for the armed forces of North Korea is known.