North Korea’s Ministry of Higher Education has ordered education officials in North Hamgyong Province to produce “model units of science education.”
This comes after the ministry conducted inspections of three universities in the province late last year.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that after inspection visits to several local universities last month, the ministry sat down with education officials from the province on Dec. 23 to analyze their successes and failures, as well as to discuss the creation of “model units” at the province’s universities.
According to the source, officials from the ministry made the inspection visits to three local universities at the end of last month.
The source said the ministry launched the inspections after learning through discussions with students and other materials that the three universities in question had failed to properly automate or computerize, and for about two years, students have been unable to conduct lab experiments or research they learn in the classroom because their laboratory spaces are essentially shams.
In fact, during their inspections, the ministry officials strongly criticized the schools for failing to properly equip their labs. As a result, the presidents and party secretaries of the universities were subject to intense, organized criticism from the ministry and North Hamgyong Province party committee.
The ministry said the schools offer poor-quality education given their conditions, and that their graduates will be unable to play their role in society as a result. It called on the three universities in question to “automate and computerize” on a trial basis.
In particular, the ministry and provincial party committee called on the three universities to create one more research team per school, and properly equip their laboratory spaces “without fail,” the difficulties of doing so at their own expense notwithstanding. They called on the schools to file regular situational reports and strictly evaluate progress.
The source said the ministry and provincial party conduct general reviews at the end of every year, threatening the presidents, deans, head lecturers and party secretaries of universities that fall behind with punishment.
From the first semester of 2022, the Ministry of Higher Education has been working to improve the educational environment and conditions at the three universities by ensuring they have complete “linked education” structures that can integrate education, research and production “at a high level.” It has also stressed that all other universities in North Hamgyong Province must complete such improvements over the next five years.
The provincial party committee said the ministry’s order represented a “massive transition” in the province’s university sector, and called on officials to remember that fulfilling the party’s educational policies are related to the ideas presented at the Eighth Party Congress.
The source said the government plans to look at the educational system’s production of skilled personnel able to make real contributions to society — rather than just ivory tower scholars — by preparing students with experience of integrated education, research and production when it reviews its Eighth Party Congress tasks over the next five years. He added that every province plans to engage in related efforts.
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