editorial

It is the general goal of education defined by the Workers’ Party of Korea to turn education into the one which can be fully entrusted with the future of the country. 

Successes have been made in the field of education during the eighth term of the WPK Central Committee.

The Eighth Congress of the WPK set forth important tasks for accelerating the revolution in education.

The fundamental thing in the educational revolution is to develop the structure, content and methods of education.

The structure of primary and secondary education is mainly geared to making students acquire full general basic knowledge, while that of higher education is for training a larger number of competent and useful personnel with practical abilities and outstanding talents who can play a pivotal role in the development of science and technology and the economy.

The content of education should enable students to gain profound knowledge in their specialized fields, practical abilities and many-sided knowledge, and the methods of education should be improved to turn students into active learners and searchers so that they can acquire practical knowledge and abilities.

The Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK discussed the issue of education as an independent agenda item and took Party and state measures to definitely push the work of improving the educational structure onto a full-scale implementation stage.

As a result, the general education sector adopted optional curricula according to economic and geographical features of relevant areas and natural abilities and aptitudes of students, and Kim Il Sung University and other major universities introduced a full credit system, adding new features to the overall structure of education.

Amid the brisk effort for improving the content and methods of education, the second universal 12-year compulsory education programme was revised and supplemented and the heuristic, quest-type and discussion-oriented teaching methods and various advanced extracurricular education methods were newly created in the field of general education and the research-type teaching and learning methods were introduced in the field of higher education to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching.

The material and technical foundations of the educational sector have been strengthened.

The Academy of Pedagogical Science was newly built as a centre for research into pedagogical science, modern bases for experiment and practice were created at Kim Il Sung University and many other universities and the national educational information system was set up.

As the construction of model schools and kindergartens has been pushed ahead on a large scale, more than 340 schools, over 780 branch schools and 150-odd kindergartens were newly built or remodelled onto the standard level across the country in 2024 alone and Jonjin Senior Middle School in Rangnang District, Pyongyang, was built as an integrated school and inaugurated in 2025.

Especially, the educational environment in rural areas has been improved beyond recognition.

In close cooperation with the Party and power organs in the relevant areas, educational guidance organs fully grasped the situation of kindergartens and schools in rural areas and took relevant measures. Dynamic efforts have been directed to providing rural schools with more school furniture, educational equipment and apparatuses for experiments and practical training and creating various practical educational environments.

Under the leadership of the Party, a social climate of attaching importance to education was established throughout the country and all people supported the educational work as active parents and sponsors.

The Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK, which discussed the issue of strengthening the country’s educational foundations, served as an occasion for boosting public interest in education and enthusiasm for supporting education.