Many North Korean students take on odd jobs such as making coal briquettes or transporting their parents’ market goods due to hardships at home. Students often get hurt on the job or must put their studies on the back burner.
“Nowadays, almost every family gives their children odd jobs because life is so hard,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “With children forced to take on family jobs to survive, the slogan, ‘A student’s duty is to study,’ is losing its meaning.”
According to the source, one high school student in Hoeryong was seriously injured after returning home from school while making briquettes needed for cooking, with his toenail rotting. However, since the family had no suitable ointments or medications, he simply wrapped his toe in cloth.
Such incidents happen often in North Korea, the source said. Families too poor to buy winter fuel at the market make their own briquettes from coal powder, with their children mobilized for the task.
“Children hate making briquettes most because it’s hard and they get covered in coal dust, but children make as many briquettes as they can to survive,” the source said. “Homemade briquettes aren’t very good for keeping the house warm, and all they’re good for is cooking, but for homes that can’t afford even that, they’re a lot of help.”
Market work takes toll
Children whose parents work in the marketplace get tasked with transporting goods. Many sustain injuries while moving heavy cargo.
“Children wake up early at dawn, pack goods with their parents and bring them to the market, and then return when it closes to help their parents put their goods on a handcart and bring them home,” the source said. “When their parents are sick, their children take over the job.”
In such circumstances, children are too tired from chores to study, even if they attend school.
“When morning classes end, students must participate in all sorts of mobilizations at school, and after school, they must help with everything at home — they are so busy that a day is not enough,” the source said. “They are so physically exhausted that they often put their heads on their desks and sleep during class hours.”
Some students even do necessary chores to help their families survive during class hours, quietly talking to the class president to slip out of school during less important classes or those taught by teachers who aren’t especially strict, using the time to draw water from wells or chop wood on the hillsides.
As there are so many students like this, homeroom teachers look the other way, telling their students to “arrive at school and tactfully come and go.”
“Homeroom teachers can’t say much because families depend on it for their survival,” the source said. “Now it’s taken for granted that students prioritize making ends meet over their studies.”
