culture

Wasan Primary School in Sosong District, Pyongyang, which was awarded the title of Twice Honoured Red Flag School, is well-known for the high ability of its students and the training of promising reserve artistes and sportspersons.

Pak Un Hui, headmistress of the school, said, “The secret lies in the steady improvement of teachers’ ability and qualifications as educators.”

The school gave priority to improving the abilities of students aimed at developing their intellectual faculties and creative application abilities and, to this end, encouraged teachers to put much effort in the preparations for teaching.

It saw to it that through the strict implementation of their daily and weekly plans for the improvement of their qualifications, teachers fully grasped teaching contents and acquired the qualifications to do teaching properly.

Meanwhile, it pushed ahead with the work to create and generalize excellent teaching methods that suit the psychological characteristics of students and can improve their cognitive abilities to the maximum.

According to Pak Un Hui, more than 10 effective and superior teaching methods have recently been created by teachers, thus improving the practical effects of education.

Teacher Jang Hyon Gyong created a reverse teaching method for the nature lesson “To understand solubility of water” of third-year students. The method gets students to find out points in question through the preparation for the lesson using an experimental apparatus unlike the previous teaching method which put the main stress on the teacher’s explanation and question and answer and find solutions through discussions.

The method capable of doubling students’ cognitive effects related to what they learned was rated as excellent and generalized to other primary schools across the country.

The school organized a department-specific teaching contest, a seminar on teaching methods and a seminar on teaching materials to steadily improve the practical qualifications of teachers.

As a result, several of the teachers won the title of October 8 Model Teacher last year alone.

The operation of extracurricular groups plays a big role in ensuring that students acquire many-sided knowledge and abilities.

At present, the school runs more than 30 hobby groups such as those of mathematics, foreign languages, composition, vocal music, table tennis and Taekwon-Do so that students can develop their talents to their heart’s content in those groups.

The rate of its students’ entering schools of higher grade has increased and many of its students proved successful in Pyongyang municipal and national sports games.

The group of Taekwon-Do has won six consecutive victories at the national Taekwon-Do tournaments.

And many students of the school presented collections of literary works to the respected fatherly Marshal Kim Jong Un year after year to please him and were awarded “Our Classroom” Literature Prize.

Pak Un Hui said that the operation of the groups also brings about good results thanks to the teachers' competence and great teaching abilities.