Country of All-People Learning

There are two kinds of the education system in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: full-time education and the study-while-you-work education. Amid the constant development of the education system designed to teach all the population, the distance education system is thriving as it involves an increasing number of working people.

As a form of study-while-you-work education, the distance education is an ideal all-people study system that closely combines education with scientific research and production so as to give full play to its vitality.

The DPRK Law on Distance Education provides a legal framework for delivering online education.

Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology, Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences, Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry and other major universities have evolved into online education centres, which ensure the students in different parts of the country get access to online courses on mechanical engineering, construction, chemistry, medical science, light industry, foodstuff and consumer goods, information technology and other favourite subjects.

The number of would-be students is increasing day by day.

More than ten years ago, Kim Chaek University of Technology started its distance education course with dozens of workers from the Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex and now it gives online education to tens of thousands of working people.

Among the students are officials, technicians, workers and persons with disabilities.

According to an official of the university, a large number of students have finished the online course and many of them have acquired a doctor’s degree and obtained diplomas of invention and technical conception. And many of undergraduates are playing their part in the production and management of their own units.

Hundreds of workers at the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Silk Mill, the Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory and other light industrial establishments are receiving the online education from Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry.

Agricultural workers are showing much interest in the distance education.

Pyongyang University of Agriculture, Wonsan University of Agriculture, Sariwon Kye Ung Sang University of Agriculture and other universities across the country have seen an increasing trend in the number of the entrants. They are all determined to learn more to do scientific farming and harvest high yields.

Recently, distance education enjoys growing popularity among the full-time graduates who are eager to keep abreast of latest sci-tech developments.