「로동신문」에 나타난 북한의 전반적 12년제 의무교육 분석

Abstract

Since the initial days of the regime, the North Korean government has taken a special interest to their public education system, as it was seen as a powerful means of maintaining the political and ideological system that was in place. Given its importance, the educational system remained a largely unchanging constant much over the past several decades. However, starting from the reign of Kim Jong Eun in 2012, the North Korean government added an extra year to their compulsory educational system. This paper seeks to address the impact that this change in educational system has had on the daily lives of North Korean people, as well as to understand Kim Jong Eun’s motivation behind the implementation of this change. To delve into these questions, this paper has analyzed articles regarding this 12-year compulsory education system from the Rodong Newspaper. These articles were all printed between the dates of September 1, 2014 and October 31, 2016. Through this analysis, this paper has concluded that there are two goals of the new compulsory education system: to create a “New Century Revolution” and to create a “Powerhouse of Talent”. Additionally, analysis shows that the system encouraged a change in teaching methodology to increase North Korea’s quality of education. While the implementation of stronger teaching methodology and longer academic periods can be beneficial to North Korean students, the sudden and mass mobilization of this change in the educational system could also be seen as an extra burden for the families of North Korea.