Teenage students and their parents are reportedly angry after students were suddenly compelled to sit their final exams without sufficient preparation time. The final exams were administered almost as soon as students returned from rural support work, because farm mobilization had been extended but Kim Jong Eun also ordered school vacations to start early.

A source from Sinuiju told Daily NK on the 22nd, “They suddenly informed students that they would take their final exams,” adding, “Students, who spent the entire month of June weeding and planting rice in the fields, were not allowed enough time to prepare for the exams, and now annoyance at this has emerged. Teachers and principals just said that it couldn’t be helped as it was an official instruction.”

In North Korean elementary and middle schools, tests are usually administered in mid-July, two weeks before summer vacation, but this year they were moved forward to early July to accommodate Kim Jong Eun’s desire to shorten the school year (see linked article). At the same time, North Korea mobilized students for a longer period of farm mobilization work this year. The period lasted until well into the second half of June.

The source said, “Of course, students were just going to start preparing for their exams from the beginning of July due to the mobilization. However, parents thought that this was highly unreasonable, and are frustrated that the Marshal made it happen.”

One associated problem is that cadres and people of means are able to bribe relevant state officials to get their children out of the farm mobilization work, placing them in a good position to succeed despite the sudden testing process. Like affluent South Korean children, some even have the benefit of private tuition, further exacerbating the situation.