North Korea has begun merging education colleges throughout the country as part of an effort to reduce education-related expenditures, Daily NK has learned.<\/p>\n
The country’s Education Committee (an agency under the Cabinet that manages education-related administrative matters) had conducted a month-long review of staff and student skills at education colleges nationwide at the beginning of the year. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly saw the results of this review and ordered the schools to merge to reduce expenditures.<\/p>\n
The schools to be integrated are located across six unspecified provinces, including Chagang Province. The integration process is being managed by officials from the education committee and provincial level education departments.<\/p>\n
Chagang Province’s education colleges already completed their integrations on Monday or Tuesday this week. The province’s “first” and “second” education colleges (both located in Kanggye) have now become a single school called “Kanggye Education University,” according to the source.<\/p>\n
The biggest issue that has arisen during the merger is how to deal with professors. The colleges in Chagang Province are reportedly moving to forcibly retire elderly professors who have not met certain evaluation criteria.<\/p>\n
“The schools have announced that staff who have around five years left until retirement age will undergo a thorough evaluation process,” the source told Daily NK. “A professor who is 55 years old, for example, could face immediate forcible retirement given that he would reach retirement age in five years.” North Korea’s compulsory retirement age is 60.<\/p>\n
“The Supreme Leader [Kim Jong Un] has called for the reduction of state education expenses, and this has led to efforts to reduce living expenses paid out by the education departments to professors,” the source said.<\/p>\n
In any case, there has been a steady decrease in the number of students at colleges given that women are not having as many babies as they used to, the source noted, adding, “The leadership likely judged that there’s no more need for so many education colleges focused on cultivating more teachers.”<\/p>\n