North Korean teachers are dealing with mounting stress as schools hold them responsible for poor student attendance rates.
According to a source in South Hamgyong province who spoke to Daily NK recently, a homeroom teacher at a middle school in Chongpyong county has quit her position and stopped coming to work entirely after clashing with her principal over attendance issues.
“It’s absurd for the school to keep nagging teachers about attendance when they know perfectly well that kids aren’t skipping because they hate school—they’re staying home because their families are barely getting by,” the frustrated teacher said.
The reality behind empty classrooms
Her second-year class has had less than 60% attendance almost every day since the spring semester started in April. Students miss school to help their families survive: picking herbs in the mountains, working at their parents’ market stalls, or taking care of household duties while their parents work.
The principal repeatedly warned the teacher that she’d lose her homeroom position if she couldn’t get attendance above 90%. Eventually, she’d had enough and resigned, refusing to return to work.
“Sometimes I feel more like a prison guard than a teacher,” she told the principal. “I’ve tried everything, and I can’t promise you 90% attendance.”
The incident was reported to the Chongpyong county party committee, which showed little sympathy for the teacher’s situation.
“We cannot tolerate a teacher abandoning work without permission,” the committee stated, criticizing her for having a “lax attitude toward her revolutionary duties.”
The committee has ordered an investigation of the entire school, treating low attendance as a systemic problem rather than acknowledging the economic realities families face.
The resigned teacher has plenty of support from her colleagues, who understand the impossible situation she was in.
“You can’t expect kids who are wondering where their next meal is coming from to have perfect attendance,” one teacher said.
“The principal was being especially harsh with her because he had it in for her,” another whispered.
Band-aid solutions
Some teachers who can afford it try to help by bringing a kilogram of corn or barley to the homes of chronically absent students, hoping to encourage them to come to class. But teachers know this isn’t really solving anything.
“Every spring, teachers say student attendance is a major headache—it’s like clockwork. What’s really demoralizing is when they act like attendance is just about how good you are as a teacher and whether you deserve to keep your homeroom position,” the source explained.
