The Most Superior Korean-style Socialist Free Education System

The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung said:

"The most comprehensive free education is ensured in our country on the principle that the state takes full responsibility for educating the people." ("Kim Il Sung Works", Vol. 64, p 51)

In our country, thanks to the wise leadership of the great leaders Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il, the best education system which humankind has already dreamed of as an ideal for decades has been established, so that all the people enjoy an independent and creative life, learning to their hearts' content under the benefits of universal free education system.

Our universal free education system is the precious legacy provided by our great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, who had boundless love for the country and the future in his lifetime, and the best education system further consolidated and developed under the wise guidance of our great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il.

Our universal free education system has its historic roots in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

In those days of the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, our great leader

Comrade Kim Il Sung had a far-reaching plan to introduce the compulsory free education in our country in the future while personally formulating the "Ten-Point Program of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland" and saw to it that the free education was introduced in the schools in the vast revolutionized rural areas and the Children's Corps schools in the guerrilla bases, thus gaining the precious experience and tradition of the original free education system.

On this basis, our great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung set a brilliant example of the universal free education system, enforcing the popular educational policies in conformity with new conditions and circumstances since the liberation of the country.

Since all kinds of educational expenses including the school fees enforced by force by the Japanese imperialists before liberation were abolished and a single popular tuition system was introduced in the first days of building a new society, all the school children and students in our country have actually benefited from free education system.

In our country, the universal compulsory primary education system was enforced free of charge from Juche45(1956), and the universal compulsory secondary education system was enforced free of charge from Juche47(1958).

Later, thanks to the decision of the Cabinet in Juche48(1959), the universal free education system was promulgated in April, so that all the working people and their children could be forever freed from the heavy burden of all educational expenses in our country.

Since then, the most comprehensive and thorough free education system has been enforced in our country, in which the state takes full responsibility for all fields of education ranging from regular schooling to social education and adult education.

The complete implementation of the universal 11-year compulsory education for the first time in the world, following the universal 9-year compulsory technical education, was another national auspicious event that fully realized the centuries-old desire of our people for the education of their children on a higher level as a brilliant victory of our great leader's Juche-oriented idea on education, and a historic event that brought about a radical advance in consolidating and developing our socialist education system and carrying out the cultural revolution in our country.

The universal free education system of the DPRK is the most popular and thoroughgoing free education system in which the state fully finances all the burdens necessary for educational work.

Our universal free education system is very broad, comprehensive and all-round in scope, as not only school education but also social education and all kinds of education in which the working people are taught while working are fully financed by the state.

In some other countries, the compulsory education system is enforced in some educational system, but it cannot be called a perfect free compulsory education as in our country and there are no countries in the world where free education system is being enforced even in the higher educational system. It is the reality of the world that even the country boasting of civilization has illiterate people and children who do not go to school.

Only under the Korean-style socialist system, can all the working people and younger generation study to the best of their ability, enjoy and create knowledge without any idea of the school expenses in the most popular educational system.

As the universal free education system and the scholarship system were enforced, and the regular education system and various types of part-time educational system were established, and the schools were built even in remote island villages, and the solid material and technical foundation for education and teacher-training institutions were built, our country is called "a land of education" and "a land of learning".

In such a severe period of the "Arduous March"and forced march,

our great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, upholding the banner of Songun, defended the sovereignty and dignity of our country and safeguarded the Korean-style socialist system from all sorts of hostile forces' moves, ushering in a great heyday of the Juche-oriented education in the new century.

Our great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, with an immeasurably noble outlook on posterity and education, made a precious statement that one slow step in education will make ten slow steps in a nation's progress and steadily put forth and carried out a lot of popular policies for education and the rising generation.

In those days he made public a number of works for training revolutionary talents and improving the Juche-oriented education and made ceaseless visits to the schools on the road of giving his field guidance to all parts of the country, and thus further intensified the flames of radical improvement in education.

Thanks to the most popular educational system provided and shining more brilliantly under the warm love and care, and wise guidance of our great leaders, our country, which lagged far behind the world's civilization in the past, has now greeted the great era of opening up a new flowering period of civilization in the 21st century.

Our respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, who is carrying forward the great leaders'noble outlook on the country, posterity and future, regards the improvement in the country's education as a very important work decisive of the prosperity and future of the country and the nation, and has taken important measures to improve our country's education one after another and given careful guidance with a far-reaching plan for turning our country into a land of education and a land of talented personnel in the near future.

The introduction of the universal 12-year compulsory education system reflecting our respected Marshal Kim Jong Un'noble outlook on the country, posterity and future is a great event that demonstrated to the world people that the DPRK is dynamically advancing towards a land of advanced education and a highly civilized socialist country.

Although there were a lot of insufficiencies and many areas to be devoted to,

our respected Marshal Kim Jong Un set the issue of the school supplies, the important material means for the school children and students'study activities as a very important matter of the country and personally took benevolent measures to build a modern Mindlle (dandelion) Notebook Factory and made sure that on the same day and at the same time, all the school children and students in our country were supplied with good-quality notebooks, knapsack-type schoolbags and school uniforms produced in our country and branded with our own trademark, as it was at the time when the issue of pencils was brought up as the first item on the agenda in the session of Provisional People's Committee from scratch in the liberated country, and as it was in those days when our children were provided with the best mechanical pencils in the world.

That is why our people are grateful to the peerlessly great men who converted our country into the land of education, the land of learning, and they are full of burning determination to value and glorify the Korean-style socialist system centered on the popular masses under which all the people live happily, free from any cares and worries about learning.