First, the true situation of "free education" in North Korea
For a long time, due to North Korea's strict control over the flow of information, its domestic situation has been covered with a mysterious veil. However, with the development of the Internet and North Korea's increasing need for external communication over the years, some information has also been circulated, including the education system and the true situation of "free education" in North Korea.
Since 1975, North Korea has implemented the "11-year compulsory education system".
The education system consists of 1 year of preschool, 4 years of primary school, and 6 years of middle and high school. After completing high school, students also have to take the university entrance exam.
Of course, the university entrance exam in North Korea is very different from our unified college entrance exam, but that's a topic for another time.
Then, in 2014, North Korea implemented education reforms, expanding compulsory education to 12 years, and children started primary school at the age of 7.
Before attending primary school, North Korean children also have to attend kindergarten for about 3 years. If they are younger, they may also have to attend daycare centers. In any case, they cannot become a burden for their parents' work. In terms of childcare, objectively speaking, North Korea has done quite well.
However, once children enter primary school, the situation is different from ours.
Because North Korean education appears to be "free education," but it is actually not "cheap" at all.
Essentially, North Korea's national strength cannot support large-scale free education. As an agricultural country where people have long struggled to meet their basic needs, it is impossible to achieve this.
So, although North Korea does not charge "tuition fees" from primary to secondary school, there are other "contributions" made in secret.
One is "non-cash contributions".
Starting from primary school, students have to participate in school construction, provide firewood for heating in winter, repair school equipment and facilities, and donate goods, etc.
The earlier tasks are considered minor student labor and can be seen as social practice. However, the "donation of goods" is a significant burden for parents.
First of all, this kind of "donation" has a certain degree of compulsion. If a family dares not to donate, the consequences are not something an ordinary family can bear.
Secondly, there is a wide variety of "donated items", including everything.
For example, each student is required to donate dozens of kilograms of iron, copper, zinc, or other metals to the school every year. In addition, there are wood, fur, flowers, fertilizers, and local specialties, etc.
What if they can't collect these things? No problem, the school provides a considerate service - they can pay money instead.
In addition, schools often organize fundraising, such as donating to the People's Army or certain official institutions. This is a clear form of "cash contribution".
The free things are actually the most expensive. North Korean schools have mastered this system.
According to some "defectors" who have escaped from North Korea, the monthly materials and money contributed by a North Korean student amount to about 200-300 yuan (approximately $30-45) when converted. If this is true, considering North Korea's average annual income of less than 5,000 yuan (approximately $750) per person, education expenses alone can account for about one-fourth to one-third of an average North Korean dual-income family.
I often see people online advocating for North Korea's "free education" and saying that North Koreans hardly spend money and save all their monthly salaries. If these people were to go to North Korea, they would probably crawl back to China within a month.
Second, the general's favor
In North Korea's education system, there is a very special educational content that is unique in the world, collectively known as "favor education".
Starting from primary school, students begin to receive "favor education". The curriculum of North Korean primary schools includes special courses dedicated to studying the childhood stories of the two generations of North Korean leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
The hardships during the war, the nobility of the Baekdu Mountain bloodline, and the "steel-like will" that can make machines cry when passing through security gates are all subtly conveyed through these stories, allowing North Korean primary school students to establish a correct "favor perspective" from an early age.
In the middle and high school stages, "favor education" will be further upgraded. In addition to subjects such as language (Korean), mathematics, physics, and chemistry, students will also study the revolutionary history of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Il-sung's wife, Kim Jong-suk.
In North Korea, there are no regular history classes in middle and high school. Learning the personal revolutionary history of several generations of leaders is considered studying history. To learn real history, one must enter university.
In addition, boys will also study military courses, practice marching and shooting, understand and draw military maps, and form small teams for combat and other military skills. Girls, on the other hand, learn various production and life skills. Each school can be seen as a semi-military school.
After 12 years of systematic and uninterrupted "favor education," regardless of what North Korean youth do in the future, the "general's favor" is deeply ingrained in their minds.
This is why when North Korean people see their leaders, they cry and shed tears. The Americans may portray it as coercion through force, but it is not. It is because they have been educated in this way and have already internalized the belief that "the general's favor is higher than the mountains and deeper than the sea." Their emotions are genuine, with very little falsehood.
I do not intend to judge North Korea's "favor education." These are choices made by the North Korean people themselves. Let's consider it as an experiment they conducted for human civilization. After all, it is because of North Korea's existence that the world has come to know what rules humanity should abide by and pursue.