North Korean Students Begin New Semester with School Supply Sets from Kim Jong Un’s Secretary

According to the Rodong Sinmun on the 1st, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s Secretary has reportedly gifted school supply sets to students at academies across the country, including students in island villages and small island schools.

The newspaper reported that “the students in the revolutionary academist, including the children of the revolutionist who are studying at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy and the Kang Ban Seok Revolutionary Academy, have received school supply sets, and those have also been distributed to students at elementary and middle schools in Pyongyang and other regions.”

The newspaper reported that the school supply sets include over a hundred items of Sunflower-branded pencils, erasers, crayons, watercolor sets, ballpoint pens, correction tapes, and other school supplies.

On each year of April 1st, North Korea starts the first day of school.

Meanwhile, Rodong Sinmun, in an editorial on the day, introduced new policies being implemented in schools this year, stating, “This year, we must once again bring about a revolutionary turn in the development of education.”

The paper noted, “In the general education sector, dozens of schools will experimentally conduct elective subject system according to the second overall 12-year compulsory education directive, and more technical advanced middle schools (high schools) will be established and operated.”

It emphasized, “In line with the restructuring of the education system, we must purposefully carry out work to concretize, diversify, and practicalize education content and methods.”