While North Korea continues to mobilize
residents as young as middle and high school students for nationwide farm work,
as announced on the 20th, fines paid by students to waive their duties are
being used for school expansion and repair projects, Daily NK has learned.
Unlike last year, the state has allowed
students to substitute manual labor with fees and schools are in fact
encouraging such payoffs, according to a local source.
“In May and June, whether you like it
or not, you have to go out to help farming. It doesn’t matter if you’re a
factory worker, state company worker, middle or high school student,” the
source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday. “For young
students, May is the month when you work on an empty stomach from the crack of
dawn.”
She added, “Just until last year, farm
mobilization was considered a test for student loyalty to the Party, so it was
mandatory–no exceptions. But this year, they’re more permissive about students
not attending; schools have ordered teachers to waive the work for students who
can pay the fees.”
The cost for exemption is one ton of
cement, which is promptly turned over the school. This translates to roughly
60 USD in the markets, or the equivalent of 100 kilograms of rice– a sum
only the donjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More [new affluent middle class] would be able to afford, according
to the source.
She elaborated that school modernization
projects have been underway after the North extended its mandatory education to
12 years in 2013. With this change, Kim Jong Un has ordered all schools to fund
their own expansion and facility updates without help from the central
government. Faced with this uphill battle, many schools are using farm
mobilization opt-out payments as a new source of funding.
“The leader (Kim Jong Un) said mobilizing
students for agricultural support is one of the important aspects of being a
teacher since farming is part of the ‘class struggle’ that protects socialism,”
the source said. However, also being evaluated on their “loyalty” depending on
how modern and slick their school buildings are, teachers are caught in a
catch-22, trying to find ways to secure funds through exemption fees, she went
on to explain.
Predictably, students paying the 60 USD to
sidestep farm mobilization invariably comes from donjuLiterally "masters of money," donju refers to people who hav... More or Party cadre
households, further agitating ordinary residents, who struggle to get by on a
daily basis. “Some rhetorically question if 12-year mandatory education is
really nothing more than a route for rich kids to avoid manual labor and get a
leg up on their studies, leaving poor kids to languish on farms.”
She concluded by condemning state measures
as “not at all practical and utterly senseless,” explaining that as a result,
“those in the field of education find themselves in a paradox of having to
sacrifice one measure in order to achieve another.”
