culture

The tasks set forth by the 11th Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea for the education sector are being accomplished one after another and step by step.

The education sector has been busy from the outset of this year in order to successfully conclude the campaign of the last year in the implementation of the five-year plan.

In the field of general education, a detailed plan was worked out for implementing the second universal 12-year compulsory education programme, while the field of higher education dynamically pushed ahead with scientific research efforts for improving the quality of education with the main emphasis on innovating the educational structure and for contributing to the development of science and technology and economic development of the country.

In the course of this, Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and University of Sciences have taken on the features of a research-type university in which education, scientific research and production are integrated, and many universities have set up new courses and developed hundreds of new subjects.

Dozens of provincial colleges of technology, agricultural colleges and vocational colleges have worked out new teaching plans for hundreds of subjects such as light industry, foodstuff, machine and fishery so as to contribute to implementing the Party’s Regional Development 20×10 Policy.

As the second universal 12-year compulsory education programme should be implemented in the field of general education from next year, the teacher training sector is proactively training teachers who are capable of carrying out the new compulsory education programme.

Efforts are also directed towards perfecting the structure of primary and secondary education.

The Ministry of Education set this year as the preparatory stage and experience-accumulating stage for implementing the second universal 12-year compulsory education programme and saw to it that officials went out to the areas where the optional subject system was introduced on an experimental basis to learn about the economic and geographical features of the relevant regions and the aspirations and aptitudes of local students and guide and help the preparations for fully providing the schools with teachers of different subjects and educational means. As a result, empirical indicators for introducing the system on a nationwide scale have been confirmed.

In its efforts for reducing the gap in the educational level between urban and rural areas, the ministry has raised the educational level of hundreds of rural schools across the country onto that of urban schools this year.

At the same time, a great deal of experience has been accumulated in the work of perfecting the system of supporting the education of the disabled.

Successes have also been made in the work for further consolidating the material and technical foundation of the education sector.

The national education informatization system has been completed, and the construction of Kim Chol Ju University of Education and universities of education and agriculture in different provinces, the construction and modernization of schools and kindergartens and the development and introduction of modern pedagogical techniques have been pushed forward to achieve progress in consolidating the foundations for putting the country’s education onto an advanced level.

With the year end approaching, the enthusiasm of officials and educators in the education sector for concluding this year’s work successfully is growing even stronger.