Sinuiju’s education department is conducting surprise inspections at the city’s schools, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in North Pyongan Province said Sinuiju’s education department “has been carrying out surprise inspections of the city’s elementary, middle and high schools since late last month.” He said that education department personnel “are carrying out the inspection by asking questions to students in each grade.”
The primary objectives of the latest inspection are to survey attendance rates, determine the number of non-tax burdens schools place on their students, and learn whether teachers are openly demanding things from their students.
“The education department appears to have begun surveying actual attendance rates because many families cannot send their children to school nowadays due to financial distress,” the source said. “Things were already tough, and because non-tax burdens appear at any time, parents cannot afford to send their children to school even if they want to.”
One elementary school in Sinuiju demanded hundreds of thousands of North Korean won from students beginning with the start of the school year in April for everything from fixing up classrooms and the schoolyard to supporting units in the North Korean military and regional construction projects.
Schools receive tasks from the state, province, city or country, which they pass entirely onto their students. Ultimately, parents must endure the burden over and over again, the source said.
He said educators are very unhappy that the city’s education department treats them as if they place unfair non-tax burdens on students for personal gain.
“Teachers are sweating bullets because the education department inspectors barge into classrooms at random schools without warning, check the roll books and actual attendance, and call in some of the students to ask what kinds of non-tax burdens the schools have recently demanded, how much they asked for, how much the students actually paid, and if teachers made any personal requests,” the source said.
Teachers are busy trying to keep their students quiet. When the inspectors turn their backs, they signal to stay silent by secretly covering their mouths with their hands.
Moreover, with rumors circulating that the city’s education department was launching sweeping surprise inspections of local schools, teachers are openly ordering their students to tell inspectors that the schools “haven’t tasked them with anything” if asked.
“Teachers are doing this because if they get swept up in the inspection, they’ll have to deal with lots of hassles, including getting calling into the education department,” the source said. “Some teachers say they feel ashamed about making their students lie.”
Meanwhile, schools are even tasking their students with raising money to bribe inspection personnel with cash or cigarettes when they complete their probe, given that such bribes are practically customary in North Korea.
“Teachers are really unhappy,” the source said. “They ask what and who this inspection is for when the inspectors themselves are openly corrupt and wonder what good it would do even if the state told them hundreds of times to eliminate non-tax burdens.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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