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| Hungry
for school in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
| By Ahn
Mi-Young, Inter Press Service |
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|
 Dozens
of white-shirted students are seriously debating philosophy
at the Kim Il-Sung University in the Democratic People's Republic
of Korean capital of Pyongyang, said to have 10,000 students
and 2,500 lecturers.
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| In
a kindergarten elsewhere in the city, scores of children are
dancing and talking like dolls, having fun |
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| These
scenes, shot by two journalists from the neighboring Republic
of Korea granted rare access to the North in September last
year. |
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| While
they conveyed images of as normal a life as possible in he Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, they contrast with the condition
of children gleaned from independent reports of health and malnutrition
problems for youngsters in the Stalinist country, which has
been grappling with years of food shortages. |
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| Children
in fact are one of the worst hit by the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea's dire economic straits -- and unhealthy and
sick children can hardly get a proper education. |
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| The
latest United Nations reports say that 18 per cent of infants
and 30 per cent of 1-year-olds in the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea have malnutrition. This in turn threatens to blight
a whole generation with 'lifelong disabilities'. |
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| Indeed,
last month, the United Nations asked its member countries to
provide US$330 million in fresh food aid to the country in the
year 2000. |
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| Getting
food for day-to-day survival is the main preoccupation for many
youngsters in this country of 21 million people. |
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| Assessing
Education for All efforts |
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| The
EFA 2000 Assessment Report, prepared for an Asia-Pacific regional
conference on education in Bangkok (January) by the government
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korean concedes that
things are not ideal, but that the government is trying its
best. |
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| The
massive floods that hit the country in 1994 cost US$144.88 million
in total damages, affecting 5.2 million people living in 145
counties, according to the report. |
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| 'During
those floods, 4,120 kindergartens (nearly 30 per cent of the
total) and 2,290 primary and secondary schools were washed away,
destroyed, or submerged by water, said the document, causing
damage that has not been easy for this cash-strapped country
to address. |
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| The
report discusses the status of education in the country in the
light of goals set under the Education for All (EFA) initiative,
launched at the World Conference on Education for All in 1990
and which affects both children's education and adult literacy.
|
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| Needless
to say, a government hard-pressed on basic survival needs finds
looking after basic services a tall task. Apart from physical
and other damage, catastrophic floods and famine in recent years
are believed to have killed up to 3 million of the country's
21 million people. |
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The Pyongyang government admits that it may be short on food
to feed its children. Pictures of starving youngsters have been
shown to the outside world, but says it has remained committed
to increasing educational spending for free, universal eleven-year-compulsory
education for all children since 1972. |
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Indeed, it quotes its leader, Kim Jong-Il, as saying, "Education
is one of the fundamental factors on which depend the prosperity
of the country and the future destiny of the nation."
|
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| The
report goes back in history to cite gains in education made
over the decades, but these figures do not tell all, analysts
in South Korea say. |
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| "There
is a problem in the quality of education, especially with the
floods that left a lot of students helpless at home with little
food. There are (also) numerous programmes for collective training
labour that eats away many studying time," says Han Man-gilof
the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) in Seoul.
|
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| Prior
to August 1945, says the assessment report, there was not a
university in the northern half of the republic and if any,
just one or two secondary schools in each province. These secondary
schools admitted only 2 per cent of those who finished the primary
schools. |
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| Before
that time, more than 65 per cent of the school-aged children
did not go to school. Likewise, 2.3 million or 80 per cent of
the adult population were illiterate. |
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Thus, the government says that the Education for All initiative
was reviewed at the global end--of-the-decade assessment, corresponds
to the ideals of its own ideology of 'juche'. |
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Pyongyang's report lists the figures about schools -- 27,017
four-year nurseries (for 1,575,000 children), 14,167 two-year
kindergartens (for 748,416 pupils), 4,886 four-year primary
schools (for 1,609,865 pupils), 4,772 six-year senior middle
schools (for 2,181,524 students), and more than 300 universities
and colleges, where it has 1.89 million students and academics. |
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| The
report adds that nurseries and kindergartens are found wherever
there are women and children -- in urban residential quarters,
villages, factories and enterprises, and work-teams in co-operative
farms. But the fact is that many starving children have remained
at home in recent years. |
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| Yet
in many ways, the ideal youth for the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea are people like Jong Sung-ok, who won a medal at a
women's marathon race in Spain last summer. "My parents gave
birth to me. The nation has since fed, educated and brought
me up for nothing. So I owe it to the nation to everything to
achieve what I am," she says. |
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| Still,
experts say that change is also underway in the country, even
if the outside world gets little first-hand news about the reclusive
country. |
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| "The
Democratic People's Republic of Korea is no longer what it used
to be -- like a cocoon sitting alone in a closet," says Han
of the KEDI. "The citizens are increasingly curious about changes
in outside world, and a growing number of young people no longer
are a blind followers to the collective rule of the closed society."
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| He
says that the country, too, has opened its eyes to what is probably
normally seen as ''elite'' education -- to provide a few talented
students at special middle schools with computer training and
lessons in math, science and foreign languages. |
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| This
article is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced
provided that Inter Press Service is credited. |
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