N. Korean students face more ideology sessions as regime tightens grip on youth
North Korean schools have sharply increased mandatory political study sessions for students at all levels following the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, with some schools in North Pyongan province now prioritizing ideology drills over regular classes, a source told Daily NK on We
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North Korean schools have sharply increased mandatory political study sessions for students at all levels following the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, with some schools in North Pyongan province now prioritizing ideology drills over regular classes, a source told Daily NK on Wednesday.
A source in North Pyongan province, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said elementary, middle and high schools in Yomju county have been strictly monitoring student participation in daily 30-minute morning reading sessions, with attendance rates reported back at teachers’ struggle sessions.
All organizations in North Korea hold a reading session first thing each morning. During these sessions, members recite revolutionary anecdotes or biographical episodes about the Kim family or read editorials and articles about leader Kim Jong Un’s “on-the-spot guidance” from the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. These sessions serve as a key mechanism of indoctrination, reinforcing the ruling party’s policies and ideology while cultivating loyalty to the supreme leader.
The intensified monitoring has reached even the youngest students. Some schools have begun prioritizing attendance at the morning reading sessions over regular instruction — students who need to miss school for health reasons are being told to attend the session before seeing a doctor. Parents have protested that requiring sick children to attend the sessions before receiving medical care is unreasonable.
Checking comprehension, not just attendance
School administrators are not only tracking participation but also assessing whether students have absorbed the study material. Principals, vice principals and guidance officers from school chapters of the country’s youth league and children’s union are individually questioning students about what was covered in the sessions. The source said this has brought an unusual level of stress to what had previously been a relatively routine part of the school day.
The youth league and children’s union have also been running their own political and ideological study sessions, at which members present and discuss the achievements of past and present supreme leaders.
The push for more sessions appears to reflect the regime’s concern that younger generations are increasingly disengaged from mandatory ideological activities, a trend the authorities appear determined to reverse following the Ninth Party Congress.
“Reinforcing the next generation’s ideological commitment is being emphasized as the chief goal of the educational sector,” the source said. “Schools are being repeatedly ordered to provide more political study sessions so that young students can naturally accept the party’s policy and line and be ideologically forearmed.”
