North Korea has reorganized its educational curriculum after enacting the so-called “Prodigy Education Law,” which is part of a strategy to accelerate national development by cultivating talent.
“The enactment of the Prodigy Education Law was anticipated after the Eighth Party Congress determined central tasks for the education sector in its five year plan [for national economic development],” a reporting partner in North Korea told Daily NK on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The law is aimed at strengthing state-led education and establishing a developmental plan for gifted education.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presented a “five-year plan for national economic development” through his report to the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021. At the time, Kim set tasks in the educational sector such as improving educational content, teaching methods and the teacher management system, as well as bolstering teacher capacity and quality, along with mentioning the need to strengthen state investment and support.
New law went into effect on Apr. 1
“The Prodigy Education Law went into effect from Apr. 1,” the reporting partner said. “Education ministry officials have gone on site to make corrections as they ascertain how the law is being implemented, and the authorities plan to hold provincial or central government meetings regarding this in the first and second halves of the year.”
In particular, there have been changes large and small in the educational curriculum since the Prodigy Education Law went into effect, the reporting partner said.
“First, the education, teachers and textbooks at No. 1 high schools were improved, and ordinary middle schools were mandated to run special small classes per subject as a separate measure to strengthen gifted education,” he explained.
“Measures were taken to expand the educational subjects at technical high schools to metalwork, coal mining, electronics, chemicals, agriculture, livestock, fruit farming, fisheries, mining, mechanical engineering, sericulture and accounting,” the reporting partner continued, adding, “An order was also issued pertaining to classes, tutoring and intensive classes, as well as separately submitting test questions and making scoring more detailed.”
This means North Korea altered parts of the curriculum to unearth talent in various subjects covered during the country’s 12 years of compulsory education.
“Universities increased the number of people in each department’s ‘brilliant mind teams’ and improved the intensive education stage,” the reporting partner said. “The state is taking responsibility for supporting the brilliant mind teams at universities and PhD students.”
Law also tries to improve abilities of teachers
The Prodigy Education Law intends to raise the capacity and standard of not only students, but also that of teachers to cultivate even more talent, he explained.
“The teacher placement exam got longer and more difficult [after the enactment of the Prodigy Education Law],” the reporting partner said. “Teachers who didn’t make the cut were told that they must undergo qualification training three or more times and then pass the exam.
“In the past, teachers only needed to answer questions on individual subjects when they took the placement exam, but from this year, computer technology has become a mandatory subject, and the test is done by computer,” he added. In short, North Korea appears to have drawn up measures to improve teachers’ computer skills.
However, North Korea is placing a significant amount of the burden of improving and modernizing school facilities required for gifted education on parents and students.
“There’s no state support at all except for some going to specific schools or private work units,” said the reporting partner. “Because educational units are, in principle, self-reliant, schools parents are paying the costs of modernization, and parents and students are covering the entire costs of sprucing schools up, from start to finish.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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