{"id":56236,"date":"2023-09-11T16:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T07:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=56236"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:49:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:49:57","slug":"north-korea-school-autumn-picnics-sports-days-not-universally-welcomed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-school-autumn-picnics-sports-days-not-universally-welcomed\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean schools&#8217; autumn picnics and sports days are not universally welcomed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>North Hamgyong Province&#8217;s schools recently organized autumn picnics and sports days, but some students were unable to join in the festivities due to family hardship.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cElementary, middle and high schools in Hoeryong held autumn hikes and sports days on Sept. 5,\u201d a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. \u201cHowever, with so many people having a hard time putting together one meal a day due to the COVID-19 situation, many students couldn\u2019t join the hikes or sports days, even if they wanted to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Primary and secondary schools in North Korea organize picnics every spring and autumn. They also organize sports competitions on such days, with students breaking up into different teams and competing in various games. Students bring boxed lunches and snacks such as fruit prepared by their parents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, North Korean teachers expect to receive gifts from their students on these days. In the past, students prepared an extra boxed lunch for their teachers, but in the 2010s, this custom gradually shifted to providing teachers with money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a result, teachers now expect to receive gifts from students when schools hold picnics or sports days, while parents consider such days as times to prepare money or expensive gifts for their children\u2019s teachers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not all parents have the wherewithal to prepare money or goods for their children\u2019s teachers, so they simply opt to not send their children to the autumn picnics or sports days, the source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cParents must come up with least RMB 200 [around USD 27] to send their kid on a hike. Parents say even if they put a simple boxed lunch together, the teachers expect at least something. If parents send their kids with nothing, the teachers will treat them with disdain, so they feel better just not sending their kids at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Financial burdens imposed by schools cause anxiety among parents\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some parents in Hoeryong even lamented their heartbreak that their children were so happy about the school hikes, but they could not send them due to hardship at home, the source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis year in particular, many parents couldn\u2019t even think of sending their children on hikes because you have to give teachers at least RMB 50 [around USD 7], but they have no money. They knew that the amount of money handed over to teachers decides how their kids are treated, so parents with financial troubles thought it&#8217;s better to just not send their children to school at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWith so many students absent due to family hardships, only about 40 to 50% of the students in each class [20 to 25 students] took part in the hikes. Ultimately, given the difficult economic circumstances these days, the hikes made students sad rather than happy, and just gave parents anxiety.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20230907-5\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Hamgyong Province&#8217;s schools recently organized autumn picnics and sports days, but some students were unable to join in the festivities due to family hardship. \u201cElementary, middle and high schools in Hoeryong held autumn hikes and sports days on Sept. 5,\u201d a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Thursday, speaking on condition of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":48819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1360],"tags":[703,1189,1656],"class_list":["post-56236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-society","tag-education","tag-children","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korean schools&#039; autumn picnics and sports days are not universally welcomed - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-school-autumn-picnics-sports-days-not-universally-welcomed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. 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