North Korean authorities have emphasized the importance of ideological indoctrination for youth, the future generation, but on the educational front lines, ideological education for young people is either perfunctory or omitted entirely.
“On the afternoon of June 28, an ideological struggle session was held in the auditorium of Chongjin Medical College for instructors who didn’t conduct the ‘5-minute indoctrination’ session that must precede regular classes,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “The university party committee put three educators on stage and went around to each department, making them criticize the three one by one.”
“Five-minute indoctrination” sessions — conducted daily by whoever teaches the first class — teach students loyalty to the ruling party and North Korea’s leadership. North Korea has held them since the time of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Educators at all schools — from elementary school to university — are required to conduct them as a mandatory procedure.
Recently, however, educators on the ground often perform the sessions in a perfunctory manner or skip them entirely.
When this happened at Chongjin Medical College, the university administration — recognizing the seriousness of the problem — suddenly made departments observe one another.
Each department’s chief and head lecturer were required to observe the first classes of other departments to confirm whether the “5-minute indoctrination” sessions were actually being conducted. However, some professors were completely unaware of the observers and omitted the indoctrination sessions as usual.
“A grave act that blocks progress of the revolution”
The professors were so accustomed to skipping the 5-minute sessions that they simply jumped into their classes, feeling no need to perform the indoctrination.
The university’s party committee ultimately held the struggle session, where it criticized the professors and severely rebuked them. “This attitude is a grave act that blocks the progress of the revolution, and educators — professional revolutionaries — must never engage in it.”
“In years past, we used to read straight from material called ‘365 Days of Indoctrination Material’ that organized North Korean leaders’ accomplishments day by day, but now the authorities just order you to carry out the sessions unconditionally with few materials available and repeatedly demand you think of new indoctrination methods to focus students’ attention during that short time.”
Many teachers in schools are unhappy about this.
“They tell you to conduct the 5-minute sessions using new methods to move students, but many teachers say they have no idea what they’re going to do,” the source said. “Higher-ups tell you to devise new indoctrination methods like singing songs or writing poems, but teachers are resisting, saying they’re not movie stars.”
