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The need for education in preparation for inter-Korean unification is higher than ever. The above photo shows a conference for discussing the need for more progressive education in Seoul

North Korea has been implementing large-scale changes to its educational curriculum to achieve “fundamental innovations and a complete break with past frameworks” since Kim Jong-un took over as leader, an analysis indicates.

Even amid North Korea’s constraints in terms of incorporating global education trends, it has been establishing a new educational framework with reforms to its basic structures through greater student participation in IT-centered education in particular, the analysis suggests.

“In terms of school education in the North, changes have been made in educational curriculum since the 2014 implementation of a new educational system two years after the Kim Jong-un regime took over in 2012, with some new subjects being created and others integrated or abolished,” explained University of North Korean Studies professor Eom Hyun-sook in a presentation at the “Major Changes on the Korean Peninsula, Global Peace Education Now” forum organized on June 7 by the peace education group Peace Momo.

According to Eom, four major changes in North Korean school have stood out since the new curriculum was implemented. Two of them include a new emphasis on affiliations between classes and grade levels and the partial introduction of integrated educational curriculums. Third, schools have come to focus more on building thinking, research-oriented, and creative capabilities rather than solely on teaching specific knowledge or techniques in education. Fourth, textbook content has undergone major changes, with unidirectional education methods replaced by more “participatory” ones encouraging students to participate actively in classes.

Eom explained that the shift toward participatory education is “notable as an important variable showing the relationship between teachers and students in the North.” Past North Korean education approaches have focused on a process of teachers providing new information that students then repeat, try themselves, and reinforce, acquiring the information through a process of learning and repetition.

Recently, in contrast, different approaches have emerged with more emphasis on discussion and play. Another difference from the past is the proliferation of picture-based textbooks in schools. Indeed, a newly amended educational curriculum draft explains, “A characteristic of the general 12-year compulsory education curriculum plan is the shift toward a classroom relationship where students participate actively in classes with an initiating attitude.”

In a 2014 report, the Choson Sinbo newspaper said new textbooks had “been written in a more accessible way.”

Changes in textbooks’ presentation of content were also evident. The past general 11-year compulsory education plan gave the goal of school education as cultivating “the builders of socialism and new Communist individuals possessing knowledge, virtue, and a strong constitution.

In contrast, the new curriculum’s overall 12-year compulsory education plan gives a goal of developing “creative talents and new autonomous individuals.” While the focus of content has been on instilling knowledge while emphasizing a logical, systematic, and sequential approach, a major effort has recently been made to simplify the writing to take the learners’ interest and comprehension levels into account. Additional elements of overseas educational trends also appear to have been introduced with the appearance of a British-style English education curriculum and teaching aids and tools.

Since Apr. 2014, North Korea has adopted new textbooks for school education following the proclamation of an ordinance for “general 12-year compulsory education” (replacing the existing “general 11-year compulsory education”) in 2012, the year the Kim Jong-un regime effectively took power.

The study consisted of analyzing changes in North Korean elementary, middle, and high school first-year textbooks published since the Kim regime took over, along with the North’s regularly published “People’s Education,” “Education News,” and “Teacher Propaganda Notebook,” to observe differences in the methods used by schools in teaching students.

The North Korean educational curriculum also appears to have gone through some trial and error early on after the shift. In 2014, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper wrote, “It is easier said than done for teachers to change direction toward new classes that depart from the long-entrenched knowledge delivery-centered approach and force students themselves to grasp the essence of questions and take the initiative in acquiring knowledge.”

But ongoing efforts have been made to leave behind the rigidity and inflexibility of the past “uniform classroom” approach. North Korean textbooks at least have adopted different forms and approaches from before, while their aims have shifted to helping students freely explore and engage in their own critical thinking.

“It remains a consistent policy in the North’s educational content development to emphasize education on political philosophy and decisively reinforce education on science and technology,” Eom observed.

“But we should note how the North’s education, which previously functioned as a mean of ‘reshaping individuals,’ is accommodating historical demands where creative talents are the ‘new autonomous individuals,’” she noted.

By Hong Seock-jae, staff reporter

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