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http://korean-books.com.kp/KBMbooks/en/work/leader1/00000278.pdf
KIM IL SUNG
THESES ON SOCIALIST EDUCATION
WORKING PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, UNITE!
KIM IL SUNG
THESES ON SOCIALIST EDUCATION
Published at the 14th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth
Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
September 5, 1977
The working-class party and state that have seized power are faced with the mighty task of building socialism and communism. It is imperative for building socialism and communism to continue the revolution even after the socialist system has been established and to push ahead with the struggle to capture the ideological and material fortresses of communism.
Of these two fortresses, it is the ideological one that is more important to conquer. It is only when the people, the masters of society, are re-educated in communism that the fundamental question of building communism can be solved and the material fortress taken with success. The working-class party and state should therefore put their first efforts into conquering the ideological fortress by re-educating the people in communism during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.
In order to take the ideological fortress of communism, educational work must be well managed. Good education will make it possible to do away with the ideological and cultural backwardness that is a remnant of the old society, to train everyone to be people of a communist type and to promote the revolution and construction.
Education is a decisive factor in the revolution and in determining the fate of the nation. Without education there can be neither social progress nor national prosperity, at any time or in any nation. The question of education acquires still greater importance in those newly independent countries which have won their freedom from imperialist, colonial rule.
Since the earliest days of its leadership of the revolution and construction, our Party has paid close attention to education. At every stage of the revolution our Party has mapped out and put into practice a sound education policy and the Party and state have put a lot of work into education.
Thanks to the wise leadership and sound education policy of our Party, what remained of the education system that had been in force under colonial enslavement was quickly eliminated and an advanced socialist system of education established. And brilliant success has been achieved in public education and in training our own cadres. In our country today universal 11-year education is compulsory and every member of the younger generation studies to the best of his ability at state expense. An army of intellectuals, a whole million strong, has grown up and is now efficiently running the state organs and economic and cultural institutions. Our working people who once lagged far behind modern civilization, are all working as master-builders of socialism and their cultural and technical levels are of middle school standard or higher. A new era of socialist culture has been opened up in this land where total ignorance once prevailed.
Today we are confronted with the momentous task of developing education for socialism in line with the demands of the revolution. The situation today, in which the three revolutions—ideological, technical and cultural—are really getting into their stride, demands urgently that socialist education should be developed further. By accelerating the ideological and cultural revolutions and pressing on with the technical revolution by developing socialist education, we shall bring earlier the victory of the socialist and communist cause.
1. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF SOCIALIST PEDAGOGY
Socialist education is an undertaking to teach people to be independent and creative social beings.
Man can be an independent and creative social being only when he is conscious of his independence and creative ability. Independent consciousness and creative ability are not inherent. No man is born with an ideology or knowledge. It is through education that man acquires independent ideology and a knowledge of nature and society and cultivates the creative ability to understand and change the world.
The aim of socialist education is to bring up people to become communist revolutionaries who have independence and creativity. Socialist education should serve the socialist system and the revolutionary cause of the working class by developing people as communist revolutionaries who fight with devotion for society, for the people and for socialism and communism.
For socialist education to achieve its aims and fulfill its mission, the fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy should be thoroughly applied.
The fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy is to make people revolutionary, working-class and communist. In other words, it is to equip people with the revolutionary ideas of communism and, on the basis of this, ensure that they acquire sound scientific knowledge and are in good physical condition.
Revolutionary ideas, sound knowledge and a healthy body are the qualities and qualifications essential for a communist. Only when a man has communist ideas, sound knowledge and a healthy body can he be a true communist revolutionary and play the role of master in the revolution and construction.
Making people revolutionary and working-class is a legitimate demand for building socialism and communism and a basic revolutionary task that confronts the working-class party and state during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.
Even after the socialist system has been established, outdated ideas persist in the minds of the people for a long time and the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialism continues. Without making energetic efforts to imbue everyone with revolutionary and working-class qualities it is impossible to root out the old way of thinking that lingers in the minds of the people and to stop imperialist ideological and cultural infiltration. Equipping people with revolutionary, working-class ideas and a communist world outlook through an intensive campaign to imbue everyone with revolutionary and working-class qualities is essential in overcoming the corrosive action of backward ideas and in consolidating and developing the socialist system.
Making people revolutionary and working-class is fundamental to developing communist revolutionaries.
Man is a social being with ideological consciousness. A person’s thinking determines his value and quality and regulates all his activities. To remould people is, in essence, to remould their thinking, and what is fundamental to the development of a communist is to arm him with communist ideas. It is only when a person is armed with these ideas that he can acquire the qualities of a communist and display a high degree of independence and creativity.
If a man is to study hard and use his knowledge effectively in the revolution and construction it is essential that he be armed with communist ideas. Only a person who has revolutionary, working-
4 class ideas can ensure that every bit of what he has learned is practical and can devote all his wisdom and talents to the great work of building socialism and communism. Learning that is not based on revolutionary, communist ideas is of no use at all.
Socialist education, therefore, should be the process of the ideological revolution to make people revolutionary and working-class. In socialist education the main emphasis should be laid on ideological education and the main effort should be directed towards arming people with communist ideas. The content and method of socialist education should be geared towards imbuing revolutionary and working-class qualities into people, and all means and facilities of education should tend towards remoulding their thinking.
A communist should possess a sound knowledge of nature and society as well as communist ideas.
The acquisition of scientific knowledge is vital to the all-round development of a man and is the basis for establishing his scientific world outlook. The creative activities of man for reforming nature and society should be supported by scientific knowledge. Only when a man has a full knowledge of nature and society as well as communist ideas can he become a fully-developed communist equipped with a revolutionary world outlook and work purposefully in the struggle to remodel nature and society.
In socialist education, importance should be attached to equipping people with a profound knowledge of nature, society and modern technology. The people should be given a systematic knowledge of mankind’s achievements in science and engineering and a profound understanding of the world and their power to act to transform it in a revolutionary way should be cultivated in them.
A strong body is the physical basis for intellectual and practical activities. Without a strong body, a man cannot hope to be independent and creative in his activities. Socialist education should make a positive contribution to developing the physical strength of the people.
The thinking, knowledge and physical strength of a man are closely related. Socialist education aimed at bringing up fully-developed communists who are independent and creative, should give both intellectual and physical training in an integrated manner, although priority should be given to ideological training.
In order to carry out socialist education satisfactorily, it is necessary to adhere to the following principles:
First, Party loyalty and working-class loyalty should be embodied in education.
Education in a class society always acquires a class character. In its class essence, socialist education is Party and working-class education.
Party loyalty and working-class loyalty are the lifeblood of socialist education and the decisive factor that guarantees success in educational work. Only Party and working-class education can form people into revolutionaries true to the Party and the revolution and contribute to the revolutionary cause of the working class, to the cause of socialism and communism.
The most important factor in developing socialist education into Party and working-class education is to establish our Party’s monolithic ideological system in it.
Socialist education must be guided entirely by the revolutionary ideas of the Party.
The guiding idea of our socialist education is communism and the Juche idea. Communism and the Juche idea are the ideological, theoretical and methodological basis of socialist education. Communism and the Juche idea provide full answers to all the theoretical and practical problems that arise in education and indicate the direction in which socialist education should progress. Socialist education must be guided by communism and the Juche idea, and these must be applied fully in all areas of educational work.
The policy of the Party reflects its intentions and requirements. All educational work must be conducted in accordance with Party policy and teaching, too, must be based on Party policy.
Socialist education must be carried out under the guidance of the Party. Without the leadership of the Party, it is impossible to implement the Party’s intentions and political requirements in educational work. By strengthening the Party’s leadership we shall eliminate “liberalism” and irregularities from education and establish revolutionary discipline so that all education is conducted in accordance with Party policy.
Establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system in education is aimed at training people to be revolutionaries who are totally loyal to the Party. All the levers of socialist education must be made to serve the training of people to be revolutionary fighters who are loyal to the Party, and education in Party loyalty should be the keynote of the whole educational process.
The work of establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system in education is closely linked with the political and ideological defence of the Party. We must prevent ideological elements that are antagonistic to the Party and unsound inclinations infiltrating this sphere and fight strongly against their slightest manifestation.
In order to develop socialist education into Party and working-class education, it is necessary to give it a working-class edge.
To give education a working-class edge means marking a clear definition between the working and the capitalist class and between communism and capitalism in all spheres of education and jealously defending the interests of the working class and meeting its every need.
The class struggle is continuing in socialist society. If we fail to give a sharp working-class edge to education and give a patchy education which obscures distinctions between the working and the capitalist class, people may acquire a patchy outlook and so may society. In education the working-class party and state must always stand by their class position and revolutionary principles and solve all theoretical and practical problems that arise in education in accordance with the interests and needs of the working class.
In order to defend the interests and meet the needs of the working class in education, a campaign should be launched to combat all non-working-class elements. We must completely eliminate what remains of feudalism and capitalism in every sphere of education, so that socialist education develops in harmony with the character of socialist society and with working-class aspirations. We must prevent any reactionary bourgeois ideas and degenerate habits spread by imperialists and their minions from infiltrating education and in particular we must be on our guard against bourgeois theories of education. We must continue to fight relentlessly against all opportunist ideological trends including revisionist theories that negate the Party and working-class character of education and preach the non-ideological character and “liberalization” of education. Thus, we will safeguard the Party and working-class character of socialist education and ensure its purity in our country.
Secondly, Juche must be established in education.
Socialism and communism is built with the national state as a unit and with the people of each nation as the masters of the revolution and construction. The environment and conditions in each country are different, as are the revolutionary tasks that have to be done. Therefore, socialist education must become Juche-orientated education that makes teaching and training conform with the realities of each country and the interests of the people there and trains the people to be the masters of the revolution in their own country.
An important factor in establishing Juche in education is to find a creative solution to all the problems that arise by adopting an independent stand.
Socialist education is creative work to develop the people who live and act in specific conditions. There can never be an educational theory or experience that can be applied uniformly to the specific circumstances and conditions in every country. We must solve all the problems of the theory and practice that arise in education creatively by our own efforts in accordance with the situation in our country and in the interests of the Korean revolution.
In order to establish Juche in education, the main emphasis in instruction should be placed on the things of one’s own country and people should be taught to understand their national things.
Koreans should conduct the revolution in Korea and build socialism and communism in Korea. If Koreans want to play their part to the full as masters of the Korean revolution and take responsibility for the revolution and construction in their own country, they must know all about Korea past and present and about the Korean revolution.
Through education our people must become immersed in our Party policy and brilliant revolutionary traditions and become acquainted with the history, culture, geography and natural conditions of our country. It is only when our people know about their own country and revolution that they are in a position to solve the difficult problems that arise in the revolution and construction by making good use of the country’s full potential and to fight selflessly for our revolutionary cause with the pride of working for the Korean revolution under our Party’s leadership and with love for the country and the people.
As for science and technology from abroad, they should be taught from a Juche standpoint and adapted to the conditions and actual situation in our country. If we fail to adopt even advanced science and technology critically to suit our actual situation, they will actually have an adverse effect on our revolution and construction rather than benefit them. The purpose of learning and introducing things from abroad should always be to gain a better understanding of our own things and to carry out our revolution and construction more efficiently.
We should reject sycophancy towards major powers and dogmatism in education. If such things are tolerated in education, all kinds of opportunist and reactionary educational theories and ideologies may find their way in and it will become impossible to develop education in the interests of our revolution and our people. We should categorically repudiate sycophancy and dogmatism and develop socialist education into a Juche-orientated, revolutionary education.
Thirdly, education should be combined with revolutionary practice.
Education is born of practical needs and serves practice. Only when it is linked with practice can education fulfil its mission.
Socialist education should be integrated with revolutionary working-class activities for socialism and communism. Only then can it contribute to the socialist and communist cause.
The combination of education and revolutionary practice is indispensable in bringing people up to be communist revolutionaries equipped with living knowledge and practical ability.
Practice is the starting point of understanding, the criterion of truth and the motive power for the development of theory. Revolutionary practice helps people cultivate their practical skills and tempers them for the revolution. It is by acquiring a knowledge of the world as well as practical skills that man becomes the most powerful being in the world.
It is only when education is closely linked with revolutionary practice that every bit of knowledge imparted can be useful in the revolution and construction; that it can train people as socialist and communist builders with living knowledge and practical skills. Theory for theory’s sake and knowledge for knowledge’s sake that are detached from revolutionary practice are utterly useless in our society. In socialist education universal principles and theories should be taught to the students in close combination with practice, and education should be conducted in such a way that all theories and knowledge can contribute to dealing with the problems that arise in the revolution and construction.
Education should always be kept in close touch with reality. Education should be sensitive to the vibrant realities of our country and all aspects of education, including its content and methods, should be improved and perfected in accordance with developing reality.
Fourthly, the socialist state should take the responsibility for organizing and conducting education.
Socialist education is an instrument of the socialist state for training the people ideologically and culturally. Through educational work the socialist state functions as a cultural educator. The socialist state should be responsible for educational work in order to accelerate communist education and training and hasten the victory of the socialist and communist cause.
The socialist state should keep education well in advance of all other work.
Socialist education is work with the people to develop them as communists. Giving priority to remoulding people, to working with people, is a sure guarantee for success in all our work.
The revolution and construction should begin with the education of people. The socialist state should always attach primary importance to education in the revolutionary struggle and construction work and adhere to the revolutionary stand of solving all problems through effective education.
The socialist state should run education on the principle of the continuous education of all members of society.
Socialist education is popular education to serve the working masses. It should contribute to educating every member of society continuously so that everyone is brought up as a communist who has independence and creativity.
The continuous education of all members of society is indispensable for building socialism and communism. Only by educating all members of society continually can any differences in the ideological, technical and cultural standards of people be eliminated and the aim of making our whole society working-class, revolutionary and intellectual be achieved.
The socialist state should establish an advanced system and a rational programme for the uninterrupted education of every member of society and push ahead with educating both the younger generation and adults as well as training its own cadres.
The socialist state should take the responsibility for providing suitable educational conditions.
In socialist society, where the means of production are owned by the state and society and educational institutions are directed by the state, educational work can only be successful when the state looks after it in a responsible manner.
For the socialist state, which serves the people, to provide suitable conditions in which to educate the people is an honourable duty. The socialist state should take full responsibility for doing everything that is needed for education—training teachers, building schools. providing educational facilities, teaching aids and tools and school fixtures and fittings.
2. THE CONTENT OF SOCIALIST EDUCATION
The content of education determines both its quality and nature.
The content of socialist education should be such that it will make the people revolutionary and working-class and bring them up as communists who are mentally, morally and physically prepared and fully developed. The content of socialist education should be fully revolutionary, scientific and realistic.
1) POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Political and ideological education is the most important aspect of socialist education. It is only through proper political and ideological education that it is possible to train students to be revolutionaries who are equipped with a revolutionary outlook on the world and the ideological and moral qualities of a communist. And only when it is based on sound political and ideological education will the people’s scientific, technological and physical education be successful.
It is of paramount importance in political and ideological education to arm the students fully with the Juche idea.
The Juche idea provides a scientific and revolutionary view of the world that is indispensable for communists. Students will only become true masters of the revolution and construction and independent and creative revolutionary workers when they are fully armed with the Juche idea.
In socialist education primary attention should be paid to teaching the students the Juche idea, and everything should be subordinated to this.
In order to arm the students with the Juche idea, education in Party policy and revolutionary traditions should be improved.
All our Party’s policies proceed from and embody the Juche idea. Party policy should be taught to the students systematically and in full so that they all gain a clear understanding of its essence and its correctness and have firm faith in it.
The brilliant revolutionary traditions of our Party have the rich ideological content required to arm people with the Juche idea, to make them revolutionary and have a great influence upon them. Through more intensive education in these revolutionary traditions we should make the students aware of the historical roots of our Party and revolution and make them able to understand fully the ideological system of Juche, our immortal revolutionary achievements, our valuable fighting experience, and our revolutionary method and popular style of work acquired during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.
In teaching Party policy and revolutionary traditions the main emphasis should be placed on cultivating loyalty to the Party. All children and students will thus be moulded into revolutionary fighters who are unfailingly loyal to the Party, fully imbued with our Party’s revolutionary ideas and prepared to support and defend the Party resolutely and rally closely around it to carry out its policies without question.
Next in importance in political and ideological education is to intensify revolutionary, communist education so as to equip the students fully with the revolutionary consciousness of the working class and with communist morality.
Faith in communism and revolutionary optimism are high moral qualities of revolutionaries who fight for communism. The justice of the communist cause, the inevitability of victory and the bright prospects for communism should be clearly understood by students, so that they hold a firm belief in the victory of communism and fight for it with devotion. The students should be taught to be optimistic and hold fast to the idea of the continuous revolution.
The kernel of communist ideology is the class consciousness of the working class and the main content of communist education is class education. By intensifying class education we should make sure that all the students fight selflessly for the interests of the working class with an unwavering working-class viewpoint and on a firm working-class stand. It is particularly important to educate them to hate the enemies of the revolution. Those who do not hate the enemies of the revolution cannot fight with determination against them nor can they become true revolutionaries. By bringing the students to hate imperialism and the landowner and capitalist classes, we should make certain that they fight resolutely against both our class enemies and the system of exploitation.
Collectivism is the basis of socialism and communism and a principle that guides the actions of communists. We should educate all the students to outgrow individualism and selfishness, and to work, study and live according to the collectivist principle of “One for all and all for one”, and fight with devotion for society and the people, for the interests of the Party and the revolution.
A love of work is a salient characteristic of the communist. All students should be taught to regard work as honourable and sacred, to enjoy work, to observe labour discipline willingly and to participate conscientiously in any common endeavour for the good of the collective and society.
Education in socialist patriotism should be improved. Socialist patriotism is the spirit of loving the socialist homeland with the working-class state power, socialist system, independent national economy and brilliant national culture. All students should be encouraged to be proud of their nation, have a deep love of their country and people, cherish their fine national heritage and traditions and be willing to sacrifice themselves in the fight for the prosperity and progress of the socialist homeland. Students should be taught to take loving care of their desks and chairs and, further, to treasure all communal property of the state and society and manage the nation’s economic life carefully and assiduously.
Students should be armed with proletarian internationalism. All our students should be educated to offer active support for the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the world for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism, to strengthen friendship and solidarity with them and to fight staunchly for victory in the world revolution.
Children and students should be taught to abide by the letter and spirit of socialist law. Socialist law is the rule of action and the principle of life which everyone in socialist society is bound to observe, by displaying a high degree of political consciousness. All students should be taught to respect the state law and observe it voluntarily and to wage a principled struggle against any violations of law and order.
Children and students should be taught to acquire communist morality and to adhere to the socialist way of life. All students should be made to rid themselves completely of any outdated moral concepts and conventions, to abide by communist moral standards willingly and to live revolutionary lives consonant with the socialist way of life.
The process by which a man’s ideological consciousness develops is closely related to the process by which he grows. Therefore, political and ideological education should be stepped up gradually from an early age, from the lowest to the most advanced stage of education. Kindergarten education should start with giving the children a general idea of social phenomena and giving them the beginnings of political and ideological awareness, and as they grow older and education proceeds to a higher level, ideological education should be intensified and the standard of education raised gradually to give them a deep understanding of the essence and fundamentals of social phenomena.
2) SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Scientific and technical education is aimed at making the students aware of the advances in science and technology achieved by mankind and at developing their ability to make use of them.
Such education should provide general and specialized knowledge.
The first task is to provide a good, general education.
General knowledge is indispensable to any member of a socialist society. A good general education at school is essential for enabling the students to gain a wide range of knowledge of nature and society and for building sound foundations for learning modern science and technology in the fields of their speciality. A complete general secondary education is provided through the system of universal 11-year compulsory education in our country.
Instruction in basic knowledge is important in general education. The main emphasis in primary and general secondary education should be placed on teaching the pupils the general concepts and essence of things and phenomena as well as the rudiments of the laws of their change and development, and especially on providing them with a general knowledge of elementary sciences such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.
The rudiments of engineering should also be taught. The students should be introduced to the fundamental principles of production and technology and given an understanding of electricity and machinery and other basic technical knowledge. In general secondary education all students should be encouraged to study at least one form of technology related to our modern industry.
In socialist education it is as wrong to divorce students from production processes by giving general basic knowledge alone at the expense of technical education, as it is to turn general secondary education into vocational training by over-emphasizing technical education at the expense of a basic general education. General Secondary education must not fail in its duty to provide a sound basic general knowledge in proper combination with the teaching of basic techniques.
Good education in the arts is necessary during general education. In primary and secondary schools, the teaching of arts subjects should be improved so that all pupils gain a basic knowledge that will enable them to appreciate and be creative in literature and art and so that they develop the ability to play at least one musical instrument and cultivate their aesthetic feelings.
Next comes good specialized education.
This education should be given during higher education after a full general secondary education. It is only by improving specialized education that it is possible to train able technicians and specialists and to realize the aim of making every member of society and intellectual.
Specialized education in natural sciences is required to acquaint the students with the basic principles and theories of the natural sciences and the latest breakthroughs in this field, and to give them adequate knowledge for solving any new scientific and technical problems that arise in their revolutionary activities.
Specialized education in social sciences is required to provide the students with a full understanding of the objective laws of social progress, the theories of class struggle and the strategy and tactics of the revolution. It should also make them aware of the valuable successes and experience gained by our Party in solving difficult problems in a unique way in every area of politics, the economy and culture. Likewise, the ability should be nurtured in the students to give sound theoretical explanations and publicity to Party policy and to offer a correct scientific clarification of the theoretical and practical problems arising in the revolution and construction.
In specialized technical education, modern technology should be taught. The students should be fully introduced to the principles of modern production and engineering and should acquire specialized knowledge of some aspects of technology. They should also be trained to master the skills of handling automated installations and other modern equipment.
The content of scientific and technical education should be continually supplemented and enriched in accordance with the demands of real life and based on the latest breakthroughs in science and engineering.
Scientific and technical education should be wholly keyed to Party policy. Instruction in all subjects should be based entirely on Party policy and linked to the situation in our country. We should thus make sure that the students learn things that are necessary for our revolution and apply their knowledge and skills in their revolutionary activities.
3) PHYSICAL EDUCATION
The aim of physical education is to develop the bodies of children and students and prepare them fully for both work and national defence.
That the children and young people have strong bodies is essential for the revolutionary struggle and for building a powerful and prosperous society. Their strong bodies developed through effective physical training will provide greater energy in the work to promote the revolution and construction and will increase the strength of the nation.
Physical education is of importance not only because it increases the physical strength of the children and young people but also because it tempers their minds and wills and raises the level of their culture. Through sporting activities the children and students cultivate courage, audacity, fortitude and perseverance and increase their sporting skills and cultural attainments.
All educational institutions should offer the students sufficient physical training. This education should be improved particularly at primary and secondary schools that are bringing the children up at the time of their most rapid physical growth.
Physical training at school should centre on strengthening the children’s bodies and making them physically well-proportioned. It should accord with the natural and geographical features of our country, the physical characteristics of our people, the sexes and ages of the children and students and the physiological requirements of their bodies.
Physical education which helps to increase the stature of the children and students and develop their physiques harmoniously should be systematic, and physical training for national defence should also be promoted.
Physical education and sport should be encouraged and made an everyday activity of the masses. At school, collective physical education and sporting activities in which the vast majority take part should be held regularly.
There should be many out-of-school sporting activities for the students. A wide variety of physical education and sporting activities, including exercises during break, group running, mass games and athletics meetings should be arranged and various sporting circle activities should be conducted at school, so that all the students are strengthening their bodies all the time and become skilled in at least one type of sport.
3. THE METHODS OF SOCIALIST EDUCATION
Socialist education can only be successful if scientific and revolutionary methods are employed. We should adopt scientific and revolutionary methods of educating in line with the objectives and mission of socialist education and run education according to these methods.
1) HEURISTIC TEACHING
The main form of school education is teaching and the basic method of teaching is heuristics. This method enables the students to gain a proper understanding of what they have been taught, so that the aims of education are achieved.
Heuristic teaching is an extremely good method that ties in well with socialist education and the laws of cognition.
By its nature, socialist education demands methods of teaching that encourage independence and creativity. Heuristics give students an understanding of the content of what they are being taught by encouraging them to think positively and so are a great help to increasing their independence and creativity.
The subject of cognition is man. Only through his own positive thinking can man recognize the essential nature of things and phenomena. The heuristic method of teaching stimulates the minds of the students and helps them to identify the essence of things and phenomena readily.
In our schools the teaching of all subjects should be done by heuristic methods.
In heuristic instruction various teaching methods should be applied to suit the students’ preparedness and characteristics, on the basis of building up their self-awareness and a positive attitude and guaranteeing the logic, system and sequence of the content of the lessons.
An important aspect of heuristics is to provide an illuminating explanation through lectures and conversation. Explanation should be vivid, convincing and extremely logical so that the students can readily understand what they are taught.
In order to develop to the full the students’ ability to think, there should be a great deal of discussion and debate and question and answer sessions should be conducted. This is our Party’s traditional teaching method and it has been tried and tested and proved to be efficient. The introduction of this method will enable the students to gain an extensive and profound understanding of what they are taught.
Visual aids and demonstration play an important part in giving the students a vivid understanding of things and phenomena and of scientific principles and in developing their own thinking. At school the content of lessons should be envisaged to suit the characteristics.of the subject and a variety of modern visual aids should be used widely so that visual and demonstrative education is improved.
The ideological education of students should be conducted through explanation and persuasion.
It is only when the students themselves understand and accept communist ideology that it can become a firm belief. Therefore, ideological education should be neither coercive nor even crammed, but always conducted by explanation and persuasion, so that the students understand and sympathize with advanced ideas of their own accord. Delinquents and laggards, too, should be treated kindly by persuasion, so that they come to identify and correct their defects and shortcomings by themselves.
Explanation and persuasion should be conducted tirelessly and perseveringly to suit the character and preparedness of each student.
Another fundamental method of ideological education is to influence the students by positive examples.
Good examples are an active criticism of the negative and a clear demonstration to people of how they should work and live. They are therefore a powerful driving force in overcoming negative influences on the people and encouraging new and progressive ideas.
Children and young people are sensitive to new things, have a strong sense of justice and like to follow the example of others. So positive examples can arouse great sympathy in children and students and be widely accepted.
The heroic struggle waged by our anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters of the past is an example that teaches the truth of real life and struggle to the younger generation who have not experienced the ordeals of the revolution. Schools should make great efforts to educate the students by referring to the shining examples set by our anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters of the past.
The good examples set by other students exert a tremendous influence, because they are connected directly with their own life. Any positive example set should be noted immediately and drawn on widely so that other students act on it in their studies and life. Meanwhile, their own positive qualities should be actively encouraged and developed so that they can overcome their negative characteristics by themselves.
2) COMBINING THEORETICAL EDUCATION WITH PRACTICAL TRAINING, AND EDUCATION WITH PRODUCTIVE LABOUR
Combining theoretical education with practical training is an important means of educating students to be communist revolutionaries equipped with useful, living knowledge. Theories obtained from books only become working knowledge applicable to revolutionary practice when their truth is substantiated in practice and when they are combined with an ability to apply them.
In school, the lessons and lectures should be properly combined with experiments and practical activities, so that the students digest what they have learned in class and develop the ability to apply it in practice. In education it is particularly important to give the students effective practical training through productive work and in their own specialty. Training through production at secondary school should be conducted with a view to encouraging the students to acquire a basic knowledge of modern production techniques as well as technical skills for handling tools and machinery. Production and specialty training during higher education should be conducted with stress laid on encouraging the students to master scientific principles and modern technical skills in their own specialty.
There should be more practical work in those subjects that require skill and dexterity. Practice should be based on scientific theories and principles and conducted systematically and in due order so as to increase the independence of the students.
For the students to acquire a living, comprehensive knowledge of the real world, visits to revolutionary battlefields and places connected with our revolutionary history should be planned and arranged and there should be regular visits to public, cultural and educational establishments, factories and other enterprises and cooperative farms.
Education and productive labour should be properly combined.
Production work, which is the most important form of social practice, is a powerful way of transforming nature, developing society and educating and remoulding people. Through productive labour man understands and harnesses nature and society and transforms himself and his own ideological consciousness. Participation in productive labour by the students engaged in academic pursuits is very important for them to acquire revolutionary and working-class characteristics and also for improving the quality of education. Through productive labour the students are tempered ideologically, learn the revolutionary loyalty and organization of the working class, consolidate the knowledge they have gained at college and cultivate their ability to put it into practice, accumulate experience in real-life situations and develop their skills.
The requirements of pedagogy should be fully met in leading the students into productive labour. We must guard against both the tendency to neglect productive labour while leaning only on classwork and the tendency to give students an excessive amount of production work. The productive labour of students should be organized rationally so that it is conducive to their education and training.
3) THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL WAY OF LIFE AND OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES.
In order to train children and students politically and ideologically and educate them in a revolutionary way, their organizational way of life and their social and political activities must be developed and combined closely with their classwork.
The organization is a forge for ideological training and a school for revolutionary education. During their time in the Children’s Union and the League of Socialist Working Youth, children and students receive ideological education and revolutionary training and cultivate their sense of organization and discipline. It is only through belonging to a revolutionary organization that communist revolutionaries equipped with a noble ideology and a strong sense of organization will be developed.
It is important in developing the organizational life of the students that the children and students participate willingly in the activities of the organization, with a sound attitude towards it. Life in an organization is inevitably a form of political life and a process of maintaining political integrity. Children and students must regard their participation in the organizational activities of the CU and LSWY as a great honour and a sacred duty, and must willingly and conscientiously carry out the assignments and obligations under the rules of their respective organizations.
In the CU and LSWY there should be more criticism, while the main stress is laid on ideological education. Only an organizational life in an atmosphere of criticism can train the students politically and ideologically and provide them with revolutionary education and contribute to bringing up communist revolutionaries. Criticism and self-criticism must be encouraged among the students and, especially, meetings to review their organizational activities must be conducted at a high political and ideological level.
To develop the students’ organizational life, the function and role of CU and LSWY organizations at schools should be increased. These organizations are political guardians who protect the students’ political integrity and are also their kind educators. They must make great efforts to protect and control the students’ political integrity and to educate and train them politically and ideologically. They should give the students assignments in accordance with their age, preparedness and psychological characteristics and help them to carry them out properly; they should also regularly review how their assignments have been carried out and give them new ones, so that every student is always kept busy.
It is important to encourage the students to take part in a lot of social and political activities.
Social and political activity is a practical way for the students to apply what they have learned at school to actual situations; it is a revolutionary activity that makes a direct contribution to building socialism. By drawing the students into a variety of social and political activities, we shall train them from their early years to be true masters of society dedicated to the struggle to improve society and the lives of the people, to be competent social and political activists who can educate, organize and mobilize the masses.
The students should be made to form propaganda teams, such as Party-policy propaganda teams, scientific propaganda teams, and hygiene propaganda teams, to explain Party policy to the masses and spread scientific and technical knowledge as well as information on culture and hygiene. We should also encourage them to step up the activities of the hygiene guards and greenery guards, as well as various other good-conduct campaigns such as the campaign to create CU and LSWY groves and the campaign to help build socialism.
It is particularly important to encourage the university students to take an active part in the three-revolution team movement in their social and political activities. Their participation in this movement should be planned, so that they will play an active part in the ideological, technical and cultural revolutions and, at the same time, temper themselves politically and ideologically.
4) THE COMBINATION OF SCHOOL AND SOCIAL EDUCATION
While receiving organizational and systematic education at school, the students are at the same time educated through their life in society. Therefore, in order to educate the younger generation properly, we should, while improving school education, educate the students correctly wherever they are subject to educational influences, and closely link school and social education.
The combination of these two forms of education is the main characteristic and advantage of socialist education that stems from the nature of the socialist system. In socialist society where solidarity and cooperation among the working people is the basis of social relations and collectivism is the basis of social life, school and society have a common goal and interests with regard to the education of the younger generation. By sharing common aims and interests, a sure guarantee is provided for making the education of the younger generation the work of the whole of society, and for forging close links between school and social education.
If we are to link school and social education properly, we should promote social education, but still ensure that school education plays the decisive role.
In socialist society social education plays an important role in developing the students as communists. Social education makes an important contribution to educating the students politically and ideologically and giving them an understanding of science and engineering, literature and the arts and sporting techniques. We should handle social education properly in order to strengthen school education and consolidate and supplement its achievements.
An important aspect of improving the social education of the students is to increase the responsibility and role played by social educational institutions and make good use of social educational facilities, propaganda and educational media.
Social educational facilities such as the students and children’s palaces, students and children’s halls, Children’s Union camps and libraries are reliable centres for the education of students. We should use these facilities to hold regular political and current affairs lectures, scientific seminars and public discussions and start up various group activities on a wide scale.
Schools and social educational institutions must strengthen their ties, and the teachers and staff of these institutions must work closely together in the education of students. They must regularly discuss any problems arising in the education of students and exchange notes and keep in touch with each other concerning how they educate the students.
The home is a cell of society .The educational influence of the home on children and young people is considerable. We must see to it that their homes are revolutionary and that the socialist way of life is thoroughly established there, so that the revolutionary influence of the home is strong. Parents must be exemplary in social and political life and in building socialism, and always be frugal and courteous, so that their every word and action will be instructive and copied by their sons and daughters.
The social environment has a major educational influence on the children and young people. The content of broadcasts, the press and films must always be revolutionary and a wholesome way of life must be fully established throughout the whole of society, so that everything the students see and hear in society is instructive.
5) CONTINUITY IN PRESCHOOL, SCHOOL AND ADULT EDUCATION
Socialist education must become an all-round, continuous process that educates all the members of society throughout their lives, from the cradle to grave.
The mind and quality of a man are formed from the cradle, and consolidated and developed throughout his life. Man’s understanding of the world grows deeper as the days go by and mankind’s knowledge and experience are continually being enriched. In order to train every member of society as a communist equipped with a revolutionary world outlook and sound scientific and technical knowledge, it is essential to educate everyone without interruption from childhood through to old age.
The proper way of educating all members of society throughout their lives is to combine and provide continuity to preschool and adult education.
Preschool, school and adult education are successive stages of education which correspond to the stages of growth, and make up a continuous educational process.
Preschool education is the first period of human education. Since a person’s ideology is formed and his intellectual faculties are developed from early childhood, it is important to give him proper education and implant good habits in him at a tender age.
In preschool education the main stress should be placed on laying the foundations for school education. At kindergarten, while emphasizing revolutionary ideological and moral education, the children should be given proper education according to their mental development, and careful attention should be paid to raising their cultural levels and strengthening them physically. It is particularly important to give a year of compulsory preschool education of a high level of quality in order to prepare the children properly for school.
Kindergarten education should be matched to the psychology of the children through a proper combination of various forms and methods such as lessons using visual aids and demonstration and teaching by songs, dances and games.
At school, one is educated during the most important period of one’s life. It is in one’s childhood and youth days that one’s outlook is formed and that inquiry and cognition are most active while the body is developing fast. Therefore, school education has a decisive bearing on the establishment of a person’s outlook and the formation of his personality.
The fundamental task of school education is to bring up all the members of the younger generation to be revolutionaries armed with a revolutionary world outlook and a knowledge of modern science and technology. Through secondary school education the young people should be moulded into men with the broad basis of a revolutionary outlook and good general knowledge of a secondary school standard, while in higher education, training should be provided to make them revolutionary workers who are fully equipped with a revolutionary world outlook and well-versed in modern science and technology.
Adult education is the education of the working people who are actually engaged in socialist construction. It is of great significance in consolidating and developing their revolutionary world outlook and continually raising their level of general knowledge and technical and cultural standards.
A man’s ideological consciousness is not immutable; it can change according to the conditions and environment. Science and technology do not stand still, they are advancing all the time. Even those who, at school, have established a revolutionary outlook and reached a high scientific and technological level, cannot consolidate and develop their revolutionary world outlook and cannot keep abreast of the developing situation, unless they continue to receive education. Therefore, adult education should be promoted to consolidate and develop what was achieved during school education and to continue to raise cultural and technical standards to conform with the latest developments.
Adult education deals with working people whose level of general knowledge and technical and cultural standards vary. In our country today adult education embraces those who were unable to receive regular schooling in the past but have attained approximately the educational level of the middle-school leaver through the adult education programme and those who have received secondary education at regular schools, up to and including university graduates.
In order to improve adult education it is necessary to set up a variety of adult education centres to suit the specific needs of the working people of different intellectual levels, so that all of them can study in educational institutions that suit their level.
Close attention should also be paid to educating cadres to meet the demands of the developing situation. While passing them through various refresher courses according to a plan, we should make sure that they attend Saturday studies and Wednesday lectures without fail and put in two hours’ regular study every day.
We must see that under the slogan of “The Party, the people and the army must all study!” a revolutionary habit of study is established throughout the whole nation and that every member of society, young and old, studies and studies hard.
4. THE SOCIALIST EDUCATION SYSTEM IN OUR COUNTRY
Socialist education can only be successful when it is based on an advanced system of education that accords with the nature of socialist society. The socialist education system in our country constitutes a basic guarantee for applying the fundamental principles of socialist pedagogy in education and achieving the objective of socialist education.
The historical roots of our socialist education system were struck during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. In those days, we set out a revolutionary education policy based on the Juche idea and, in pursuance of this, used unique methods in conducting educational work. In the course of this, we gained valuable experience in training revolutionaries and established our Party’s glorious traditions of revolutionary education. The new system of education created during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle is the prototype for our country’s socialist education system.
After liberation, in the period of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, we abolished the Japanese imperialist colonial enslavement education and set up a popular, democratic education system, as part of the social and economic reforms for building a new country. The democratic education system was further consolidated as the revolution and construction progressed and it gradually developed into a socialist education system. Upon completion of the socialist revolution and with the full-scale promotion of socialist construction, the system, content and method of education were adjusted to suit the requirements of socialist society and so the socialist education system became fully established.
Our socialist education system is a revolutionary system which serves the revolutionary cause of the working class, the cause of building socialism and communism; it is a most popular education system under which the state bears full responsibility for providing everyone with the opportunity to learn.
We should further consolidate, develop and perfect our socialist education system, the advantages and vitality of which have now been proved beyond dispute.
1) THE SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL COMPULSORY EDUCATION
The socialist education system is essentially universal and compulsory. Socialist education is education for everyone that is aimed at training not just a small section of society but all its members as communists. In our society everyone has the right to be educated and is obliged to study. Our Party and state’s education policy, such as the education system, the distribution of educational institutions and the introduction of free education, is based entirely on the principle of education for all.
The fundamental aspect of compulsory education is schooling.
Within a short time after liberation, we set up a large number of schools of all levels ranging from primary schools to colleges and universities and established a well-regulated democratic education system and, on this basis, introduced universal compulsory education stage by stage as the revolution and construction advanced and the country’s economic foundations were consolidated. Universal compulsory primary education was introduced in 1956, compulsory secondary education in 1958 and then nine-year compulsory technical education in 1967. Since 1972 compulsory 11-year education has been in force, and this is made up of one year of compulsory preschool education and ten years of compulsory education at school.
Universal 11-year education is compulsory and free, and it provides a complete general secondary education to all members of the younger generation up until they reach a working age. It is based on a scientific system of education and is the most thoroughgoing free education, combining a high level of general and technical education.
Our Party pursues the policy of making it compulsory for all the working people to study under some kind of education system, while giving full-term compulsory education to the younger generation at regular schools.
Our Party has established various systems of study-while-you-work alongside the regular education system, and run those systems with success to ensure that not only the children of school age but all the working people without exception study. In accordance with the wise policy of the Party all the working people, including the adults who were denied access to learning in the old exploiter society, can now be educated systematically, and everyone has attained the cultural and technical standards of a middle-school leaver or above. In our country today, under the guidance of the Party and the state, all the working people make it a rule to study to improve their cultural and technical, political and theoretical levels.
The system of universal compulsory education should be further developed and perfected in keeping with the inevitable demands of building socialism and communism.
To make this system complete, compulsory higher education should be introduced in the future on the basis of consolidating even further the system of universal 11-year education now in force.
In order to eliminate the distinctions between mental and physical labour and build a communist society, it is necessary to improve considerably the cultural and technical levels of all members of society and make everyone an intellectual. Making the whole society intellectual can only be achieved when everyone in society studies at some kind of institution of higher education. For this, higher education, too, should be made compulsory. It is only by making higher education compulsory that the system of universal compulsory education, as a socialist education system, will become complete.
For the present we should make preparations for the introduction of compulsory higher education at the same time as striving to make a success of universal 11-year compulsory education. And at some time in the future, we should make a big increase to the number of institutions of higher education and gradually move towards the introduction of compulsory higher education. In expanding the system of higher education, the main accent should be on the expansion and development of the study-while-you-work system. Then we should ensure that higher education is given to all the young people once they have completed their 11-year education, without adversely affecting the labour efforts in socialist construction.
In order to make universal education more successful, the educational institutions should be distributed rationally over the regions. This is of great significance in promoting the ideological, technical and cultural revolutions nationwide, reducing the distinctions between town and country areas and developing all the regions in a balanced way.
Educational institutions should be rationally distributed between urban and rural communities and between industrial and agricultural zones by considering the regional characteristics and the general balance. Institutions of higher education should be distributed on the principle of meeting state demands for cadres and setting up a comprehensive training base in every province.
It is important to arrange the composition of the system of higher education rationally according to the sciences. On the basis of an accurate calculation of state demands for cadres at any given moment, universities and colleges and faculties and courses should be established by the sciences, and the size of student intake determined accurately. In particular, with the progress of socialist and communist construction and the great development of natural science and technology, the share of natural science and engineering should be markedly greater than that of the liberal arts.
2) THE SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL FREE EDUCATION
Compulsory education can only become a reality when it is free. Compulsory education that is not free is never compulsory in practice. The fundamental distinction between the compulsory education in socialist society and the so-called “compulsory education” in capitalist society lies in the fact that education costs are borne by the socialist state, which actually provides the people with the right and freedom to study. State-financed universal free education is possible only in socialist society where the means of production and educational facilities are owned by the state and the people and the interests of the state and the people in education coincide with each other.
The most comprehensive free education is ensured in our country on the principle that the state takes full responsibility for educating the people.
Immediately after liberation, even though our country’s economy was in severe difficulties, we took measures to exempt the children of poor families from school fees and provide the students at specialized schools and universities with state grants. In the postwar years universal compulsory primary education and universal compulsory secondary education became free. In 1959 state-financed universal free education was introduced at all the educational institutions in our country.
Now we offer universal 11-year compulsory education entirely free of charge and give free education to all the children and students who study at educational institutions of all levels from kindergartens to institutions of higher learning. Not only school education but also all forms of social education are free, and adult education for cadres and working people is also given at state expense. The proportion of our budget devoted to education is very high, and is increasing every year.
Our system of state-financed universal free education is fully guaranteed by the popular policy of our Party and state which stint nothing for the education of the younger generation and the training of cadres and also by our ever-expanding independent economy.
With the development of education and the consolidation of the country’s economy, the state should improve the educational institutions and facilities, supply all pupils and students with free textbooks and school equipment and even bear the cost of the students’ collective hostel life.
3) THE STUDY-WHILE-YOU-WORK SYSTEM
The study-while-you-work system is a superior education system which enables working people in the different areas of socialist construction to study at some educational institution while they continue with their productive activities, their own duties.
Besides the regular system of education, our Party has set up a system of part-time education on the principle of providing education not only for the younger generation but also for the workers, peasants and other sections of the working people, in fact everyone without exception, and has steadily developed it to meet our present needs. Today, this system of education takes such forms as working people’s senior middle schools, factory higher specialized schools, factory colleges, correspondence and evening courses and the regular system of study for officials and working people.
This education system makes it possible for the working people to continue studying without leaving their posts in socialist construction, which makes a success of education for all.
The regular education system on its own is not enough to provide education for all, since there are working people who never had the opportunity to learn in the old exploiter society; the regular education system is limited in its scale and length, and educational work and socialist construction need to move ahead simultaneously. The study-while-you-work system of education, along with the normal education system provides an opportunity for all our people to learn and makes it possible to give continuous schooling to everyone while pushing ahead with socialist construction. In our country today there is no one who is not educated and nobody abandons his studies half-finished; everyone continues studying throughout his life. Herein the correctness of our Party’s education policy of developing the full-time and the part-time systems of education simultaneously can be identified, and one of the great advantages of the part-time system of education is also evident.
The study-while-you-work system makes it possible to train large numbers of able officials equipped with a firm revolutionary world outlook and well-versed in theory and practice, and it closely combines education with socialist construction.
Those studying under the part-time education system are student-producers and working officials. Mainly engaged in practical activities, they study theory in compliance with the urgent needs of revolutionary practice, and then apply the theory they have learned to the practice of socialist construction. For them, study and practical activities are an integrated whole. The part-time education system is in full accordance with basic socialist pedagogic principles, and it is a very effective way of bringing up the able revolutionary workers who are needed in socialist and communist society.
As almost all the part-time schools are attached to regular educational institutions and production enterprises, teachers, education facilities and proper conditions for experiments and practical training are readily available. Besides, the part-time system of education does not affect the manpower situation in socialist construction, for it enables the workers to study without halting their productive labour.
We should allow the study-while-you-work system to display its full superiority and develop it to meet the demands of the changing situation.
Now that universal 11-year education has been established, the working people’s senior middle school will soon become unnecessary, and the system of higher education and regular study system of cadres and working people will in the future become the basic part-time education system. In order to offer higher education to all members of society in accordance with the Party’s policy for making the whole society intellectual, it is necessary to continue to expand and improve the part-time system of higher education. In particular, factory colleges should be further expanded, the education there improved and farm colleges set up in the rural areas to give higher education to rural officials and agricultural workers.
4) THE STATE SYSTEM OF BRINGING UP AND
EDUCATING CHILDREN
In order to bring up children to be masters of society and communist builders of the future, they should be raised and educated collectively in modern surroundings from early childhood. If children are brought up collectively, they become accustomed to an organizational and disciplined life and develop collectivist ideas and communist moral qualities from childhood, and this is a great help to their mental and physical development.
Our Party and the Government of the Republic have always devoted a great deal of effort to the work of bringing up children under public care. After liberation we set up nurseries and kindergartens in towns, at factories, enterprises and state farms and ran them at great cost to the state, and thus we established a system of bringing up and educating children under public care. Even in the difficult circumstances of the Fatherland Liberation War, bringing up children under public care was still continued, and such great measures as setting up large numbers of baby homes and orphanages and raising war orphans were adopted. After the foundations of an independent national economy had been laid and the socialist system established in the postwar years, the work of nursing and educating the children at state expense got under way in earnest. With the planned investment of state funds and through a movement that involved the whole of society, numerous modern nurseries and kindergartens were built throughout the town and country areas and their management was systematically improved.
This led to the establishment in our country of a solid socialist system of nursing and educating children, under which all preschool children were brought up collectively at nurseries and kindergartens at state and public expense.
Our state system of bringing up and educating children is the most progressive of any such system, embodying the communist principles of child-rearing.
Bringing up children collectively under public care is an important communist policy. Socialist and communist society is a society based on collectivism, and collective education is the basic form of training communists. Only by nursing and educating children collectively in social surroundings is it possible to bring them up to be people with truly communist qualities.
That the state and society bear the costs of nursing and educating children is also based on communist principles. In our country the children are educated and brought up at state and public expense, with the result that all the children are equally entitled to all state and social benefits, irrespective of their parents’ occupations and the quantity and quality of their labour.
The state system of nursing and educating children should be consolidated and developed still further.
The institutions for bringing up and educating children should be further modernized and managed properly, and the standard of nursing and educating children should be raised steadily on the basis of socialist pedagogy. In order to bring up and educate the children better and enable women to take part in public life, many weekly and monthly nurseries and kindergartens should be gradually established.
Supply services for the nurseries and kindergartens should be improved. A well-regulated state system of supply should be established and the foodstuffs, toys, teaching aids and furnishings, medicines and nursing facilities that are needed for bringing up and educating children should be supplied in sufficient quantities.
5. THE DUTY AND ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS; GUIDANCE AND ASSISTANCE TO EDUCATION
Educational work in socialist society is an honourable and important revolutionary task assigned to the educational institutions and educationalists. In socialist society educational work is Party and state work and the concern of the whole of society. For socialist education to run smoothly, the functions of educational institutions and the part educational workers play should be enhanced and Party guidance, state support and social assistance in educational work should be carried out in full.
1) THE MISSION AND DUTY OF SCHOOLS
In socialist society, the school is the base for revolutionary training and the centre of the cultural revolution. Through its work the school contributes to the ideological and cultural revolutions.
The mission of the school in socialist society is to help the younger generation grow up to be communist and produce cadres according to the fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy.
Bringing up the younger generation to be communist is a project for the everlasting prosperity of our country. The younger generation represents the future of our country and our children are heirs to the revolutionary cause. Ultimately, the future of the country and the revolution depends on how the younger generation is brought up.
Training cadres is a decisive factor in promoting the revolution and construction. It is they who will decide everything. Without cadres who are well prepared politically and ideologically, as well as technically and practically, we cannot solve the difficult problems that arise in building a new society, nor can we ensure a rapid development of the economy, culture, science and technology.
School should make an active contribution to the cause of socialism and communism by working efficiently to bring up the younger generation to be communist and to train cadres.
In order to discharge its mission in full, the school must first organize and conduct education administration properly.
A fundamental aspect of education administration is to ensure that the work of educating the students goes through precisely the required processes of pedagogy.
The first process of pedagogy is the preparation of the education programme. Organs of education administration and institutions of higher learning should draw up a good education programme based on the basic principles of socialist pedagogy and in conformity with the demands of our revolution and the actual situation in our country and with the development of the ideological consciousness of the people and the patterns of learning in science and engineering and put it into effect.
Education administration at the schools should give guidance to the teachers so that they make adequate preparations for teaching. The cardinal point in preparing to teach is to draw up a good plan. Education administration at the schools should always check the teachers’ personal plans without fail and help them to complete them through collective discussion. When teaching new subjects and giving lectures on new matters, model lectures or demonstration lectures should always be arranged.
Education administration at the schools should guide the teachers so that they cover the whole education programme.
The key problem in guiding teaching is to maintain both political and ideological principles and scientific accuracy. Education administration should see to it that the teachers establish Juche thoroughly in their instruction and base the lessons strictly on Party policy and impart to the students working knowledge that will be useful for the revolution and construction. In addition, the latest scientific and technological breakthroughs should be introduced promptly to enrich the content of the lessons and to steadily raise academic levels.
Education administration should guide the teachers so that they improve their methods and use every teaching method that is envisaged in the schedule including lectures, discussions, experiments, practice and essay writing.
Education administration should regularly examine and take note of how much the students have digested of the subjects they have been taught and organize work for improving their academic performance.
Putting school work on a regular basis and managing it according to regulations is an important task of education administration.
This means that educational work should be conducted in conformity with the requirements of scientifically-arranged pedagogical processes and that the revolutionary system and discipline should be established at school.
A scientific system of education administrative guidance should be established at the schools; education should be geared towards pedagogical requirements; and the whole work of the school education administration from the drawing up of educational plans to their implementation, should be organized and guided in a coordinated manner.
Strict discipline must be established in schools so that the education programme is carried out without fail. The proper execution of the education programme is a task assigned to the schools by law and the most important educational discipline. The school should establish the revolutionary discipline of implementing the education programme to the letter and without question and thoroughly carry out the curriculum and syllabuses.
Schools should guide the extracurricular activities and political and organizational life of the students in a responsible manner.
In socialist society the school is entirely responsible for the education of the students. That is why the school should be responsible not only for teaching but also for the students’ extracurricular activities and should organize and guide properly not only the students’ studies but also their organizational life and social and political activities.
Both the educational environment and the management at schools should be good.
A good educational environment and good management are important factors in discharging the mission and role of the school as the organ of ideological education and the base of the cultural revolution; they are also important in training the students to be good workers who are educated and enlightened enough to manage the economic life of the country carefully.
The educational environment at school should befit an organ of the ideological revolution and it must be conducive to learning; it should also contribute to cultivating Party loyalty in the students, to making them understand the correctness and vitality of Party policy and to increasing their revolutionary consciousness. Moreover, schools should be improved in such a way as to help the students to consolidate what they have learned and to understand the realities of the country.
The school should be built up as the base of the cultural revolution and should be managed carefully. In school, classrooms, study rooms, laboratories and all other facilities should be maintained spick and span, and a mass-based management system should be established so that all the teaching staff and students play the part of master in school management.
2) THE POSITION AND ROLE OF TEACHERS
Teachers are in direct charge of educational work. In our society they are career revolutionaries who bring up the members of the younger generation as heirs to the revolution and as communists. The quality of the young people, heirs to the revolution and the future of the country, depends on how well the teachers fulfill their honourable mission. Teachers are responsible to the Party and the revolution for the future of the country.
The primary duty of a teacher is to teach well. Teaching is also his primary revolutionary duty. Teachers must teach the students well and, at the same time, guide them responsibly in their out-of-school studies and activities.
In order to educate the younger generation properly, teachers must themselves acquire revolutionary and working-class traits.
Unless teachers acquire revolutionary and working-class qualities, they cannot imbue in their students revolutionary and working-class qualities; and unless they become communist themselves, they cannot train their students to be communists.
The basic way of making teachers into revolutionaries is to improve their activities in the political organizations. Teachers should take a more active part in Party and working people’s organizations and in Particular intensify criticism.
Teachers must steadily temper themselves through practical revolutionary activities. Teaching is their major practical activity. They should put all their talents and energies into education and, in the course of this, temper themselves politically and ideologically. They should go among the workers and farmers to conduct their social and political activities and spread scientific and technological knowledge among them while learning from them.
Teachers must steadily improve their qualifications.
The qualifications of the teachers decide the quality of education. To teach well, teachers must not only be steadfast politically and ideologically but also have good scientific and theoretical qualifications. You must know ten times more than you teach.
Teachers must have a full understanding of both Party policy and their own specialty. They should also have some knowledge of a variety of other fields, including elementary science, be acquainted with domestic and international affairs, the situation in our country and educational theory and methods. University teachers must hold academic degrees in their subject, and teachers in general education should all be qualified.
In order to improve their qualifications, teachers must establish the revolutionary habit of study. All teachers must study regularly and hard and read a great deal.
Organization and guidance must be strengthened in order to improve the teachers’ qualifications. Model and demonstration lectures, scientific discussion and meetings to exchange experience with others should be conducted frequently, and state examinations held regularly to test and judge the qualifications of the teachers.
In order to bring up the students to be communist revolutionaries, the role of LSWY and CU instructors at school should be enhanced.
LSWY and CU instructors at school must directly organize and guide the lives of the students and children in the LSWY and CU and train and protect them politically. They should also be responsible educators who guide the activities of students and pupils after school hours.
The role of nursery school and kindergarten teachers should be enhanced.
Nursery school and kindergarten teachers bring up and educate children under social care. They should work in a communist way and prepare the little children for school.
Teacher training should be improved.
A well-regulated system should be established to train teachers and priority given to teacher training. Teacher-training centres such as universities of education and teacher-training colleges are “breeding stations” for the education of the younger generation. It is only when teacher-training centres educate their students proficiently that they can produce excellent teachers who are prepared politically and ideologically, scientifically and technically; only then can all the children and students be brought up as able revolutionaries. Promising young men and women should be selected and admitted to universities of education and teacher-training colleges, and the level of teaching raised decisively there.
Teacher-training institutions must also pay close attention to training school LSWY and CU instructors and nursery and kindergarten teachers.
Teachers on the job should attend frequent refresher courses. A system should be established to re-educate the teachers according to a plan so that their qualifications always match the needs at the times. Short courses should be run regularly, to ensure uniformity in teaching and to raise the quality of teaching steadily.
3) PARTY GUIDANCE IN EDUCATION
Strengthening Party guidance in education is a decisive guarantee for developing socialist education fully into a Party and working-class education and for solving all the problems that arise in educational work.
Party guidance in education is, in essence, guidance based on politics, political guidance. The central task of Party guidance in education is to fully apply the fundamental principles of socialist pedagogy in educational work and to control and guide educational work properly, so that the Party’s education policy is implemented correctly.
Party organizations must control and guide education in schools in particular. The school is the basic unit of education. Party organizations must always keep themselves informed of the work of schools and guide them so that their education meets Party requirements and suits the interests of the revolution.
Party organizations must offer proper guidance to the organs of education administration. The Party’s education policy is put into effect by these organs. Party organizations should guide them to play a greater part in implementing the Party’s education policy and strengthening state guidance of education.
The teaching staff must be strengthened, and the work with teachers must be improved.
Party organizations must reinforce the teaching staff with good people who stand steadfastly by the Party’s monolithic ideology and adhere to a solid working-class position and hold high academic qualifications. There must be no one among the teachers who has not accepted the Party’s monolithic ideological system.
Party organizations must exert tighter control over the political and organizational life of the teachers and work hard on their ideological education. In this way, they will guide all teachers to become revolutionary and working-class and to improve their academic qualifications and show great revolutionary enthusiasm and creative activity in educating the younger generation.
Work with the students must be done well.
The main revolutionary task that students are given is to study. Party organizations should guide students to treat their studies as their primary revolutionary task and to work hard at them. A revolutionary habit of study must be established, particularly among university students. Thus, all of them will acquire a full knowledge of their specialty, master at least one foreign language and become fully qualified as cadres before they graduate.
Party organizations must give responsible guidance in the organizational and ideological life of the students and direct great efforts to their political education and organizational tempering.
Party organizations must direct school LSWY and CU organizations to do their work satisfactorily. They should appoint good LSWY and CU instructors to the school and always educate them well. They must also see that LSWY organizations at all levels direct their main efforts towards working with school children and students, and must offer better guidance to school LSWY and CU organizations.
Party organizations must control the student enrolment at universities strictly in accordance with Party and working-class principles. Institutions of higher education must admit young people who have completed secondary education and have been tempered through work or in the army, are fully prepared ideologically to serve the Party and the revolution and are good at their studies.
In order to improve Party guidance in higher education, Party committees at universities must play a bigger part.
Institutions of higher learning have large numbers of teachers and students who are Party members, and there are Party organizations at faculties and departments and among students. These institutions organize and carry out all kinds of education administration independently, starting with drawing up the education programme. Therefore, increasing the Party committees’ role in the guidance of all their work is a major guarantee for being successful in higher education.
The principal task facing university Party committees is to establish the monolithic ideological system of the Party among the teachers and students and to train all the students to be able cadres and fine builders of communism, as required by the Party. These Party committees should organize the implementation of the Party’s education policy responsibly and discuss every major university problem collectively, adopt sound measures and implement them. The Party committees must consolidate their own and the LSWY organizations at universities, increase their role and always control and guide the organizational and ideological life of the teachers and students.
4) STATE SUPPORT AND SOCIAL ASSISTANCE IN EDUCATION
The material needs of socialist education, which enables all members of society to study, are indeed enormous. Also, socialist education requires modern facilities. It is only when a state that is based on a strong independent socialist economy takes the responsibility to support education that the tremendous material needs of education can be met and modern facilities provided.
The state must steadily increase its investment in education and make adequate provision for educational needs.
The state must give priority to building schools to cope with the increasing number of students and the requirements of the developing situation and build good school laboratories and practical training centres. It must also provide ample textbooks, school equipment, teaching aids and furniture, and continue to improve and modernize them. It should improve those centres that produce education equipment and send them supplies on a planned basis.
The state must set up good social educational establishments. It must build many modern social educational establishments, including students and children’s halls and CU camps.
In socialist society all members of society must play their part in education and the whole of society must offer active support. In socialist society all working people should be educators of the young and help in education.
The working people, who are the parents, should always guide and help their sons and daughters in their studies and become involved in the social education of all the children and young people.
We should launch a widespread campaign to mobilize the support of the whole of society in laying down material foundations for schools. All factories, other enterprises and cooperative farms should form supporters’ organizations to give great manpower and material aid to the schools in the neighbourhood. Publishing houses, factories and other enterprises must send new books, machinery and equipment to the schools on a preferential basis, when these are needed for educational purposes.
It is the sacred and honourable revolutionary duty of communists to run education properly. For good education is an important guarantee for the victory of the revolution and promises a brilliant future for our prospering homeland. We should develop socialist education and take it to new heights on the basis of the successes already achieved in educational work.
We should train all the members of the younger generation to be dependable builders of communism by educating them well, to make them fitting heirs to our revolution. We should bring about a turn in training our own officials to meet the demands of the developing situation and train more able people to serve the revolution and construction. We should establish the revolutionary habit of study across the nation and lead all the members of society to work while studying and study while working so that their cultural and technical attainments steadily improve.
Our Party’s education policy has been tried and found to be correct beyond all doubt. We will carry through the Theses on Socialist Education which embodies the Party’s education policy, and thus achieve still greater success in socialist education.