김정은 시대 북한 교육의 변화에 관한 소고: 1970년대와의 비교를 중심으로

Abstract

Grounded upon “About the Implementation of a Universal 10-year Compulsory Higher Education and a 1-year Compulsory Preschool Education” released on April 9, 1972 at the 2nd Meeting of the 5th Supreme People's Assembly and “Theses on Socialist Education” issued on September 5, 1977 at the 14th Plenary Meeting of the 5th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea's education system has so far been kept intact without notable changes. In this regard, the 1970s can be construed as forming the basis for North Korean education. This offers enormous implications for understanding current status of North Korean education and the North Korean society as a whole. Against such backdrop, the 1970s has multifaceted significance for understanding the present of North Korean education and envisioning the future of North Korean education. Going forward, North Korean education will eventually make progress anyhow within the following context—preservation and change or inheritance and innovation of educational legacy of the 1970s. It implies that North Korean education in the 1970s can manifest useful lessons and experiences for the present and the future of North Korean education. In this respect, this paper intends to look at current status of North Korean education compared with the 1970s. With a particular focus on North Korea's compulsory education system that is overhauled 40 years after the 1970s, it tries to compare the 1970s when ‘A Universal 11-year Compulsory Education’ was launched with the present when the above system is progressively inherited in the form of ‘A Universal 12-year Education,’ thereby having a good grasp of a series of educational changes recently attempted by North Korea.