SHOCKING SCHOOL RULES IN NORTH KOREA
By Ewaoluwa Adekanye.
North Korea has a reputation preceding her in respect to the lack of freedom of her citizens. Everything about what happens in North Korea has the effect to drop jaws. These pieces just discuss some shocking rules students have to obey in North Korea.
Learning about the Dear Leaders
The students are subjected to about 500 hours a year learning about the Kim dynasty (Dear leaders). The students learn about Kim jong-un for about 171 hours a year. They are told that Kim Jung-UN wrote 500 books in a year and how Kim Un-Sung made stones into bullets when he ran out of bullets at the war against the Japanese. These students learn about how mystical and marvelous their dear leaders are. The most interesting yet bizarre things is that they cannot fail this subject, they can fail maths or any other subjects but not this, if they fail their parents and family can be punished because the system thinks those who fail have their loyalty low to the regime.
Forced Labour
The North Korean labour law establishes 16 as the minimum age of employment and does not ban harmful labour for children under 18.
Learn to fight
Students learn to fight even in middle school so as to be ready in case of a war. They are to learn how to combat, not excluding learning the use of arms and ammunition so as to be able to defend their country in case a war breaks out . These are children, young schoolers being exposed at such a young age to a harsh, harmful, and dangerous environment.
They cannot leave
Students cannot leave their campus as they have guards surrounding the campuses not only for their protection but for their restriction. The only time they are allowed to leave is when they leave to pay respect to the Kims at the monument. Even University students do not have the liberty of leaving the campuses as they please because the schools are very strict and are heavily guarded.
Report all
All students are to ‘report all’. They are to tell anything that looks strange to the regime. Anyone acting suspicious or if their friends have told them anything that seems like their loyalty to the regime is gone , they are to report, to snitch. In North Korea there is nothing as ‘Friends’ but ‘Comrades’. Students stands on the podium mat in schools to denounce someone’s behavior even if it is their friend.
‘Trust between people have been destroyed by the regime’.
Haircut
All students in the University must have a Kim Jung-un haircut. He enforced this as a rule in 2014. There is no freedom of choice in North Korea, even to haircuts . This show how desperate the leaders are to enforce their citizens to have their haircuts as it lets them know that they are loyal.
Reference:
Yeonmi Park.