Five-year-olds’ daily study of Kim Jong-un’s ‘greatness’, as his sister Kim Yo-jong increases ‘Greatness Education’
North Korean nursery children must now half their school day learning about the “greatness” of their supreme leader.
Nursery children in North Korea are being forced to spend up to 90 minutes a day learning about the “greatness” of the supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, according to reports from the country.
The Daily NK website, which has a network of clandestine North Korean reporters contacted through illegal cellphones, says that Mr Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, is responsible for recent revisions to propaganda aimed at instilling love and respect for the Kim family.
Previously, children aged five and six spent about half an hour a day on what is known as “Greatness Education”, mostly focusing on the mighty deeds and abounding love of the state’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il – the late grandfather and father of the current leader.
Previously, children aged five and six spent about half an hour a day on what is known as “Greatness Education”, mostly focusing on the mighty deeds and abounding love of the state’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il – the late grandfather and father of the current leader.
Under a new curriculum introduced last month, however, this has been increased to an hour and a half out of a three-hour school day, time that would otherwise be spent on reading and writing. Much of this, according to Daily NK, is devoted to the glorification of Kim Jong-un.
“The kids are almost at the point of becoming primary school pupils, so parents tend to ask teachers to focus on studying the alphabet,” the website quotes a source saying.
The unnamed source says that the new curriculum emphasises Mr Kim’s precociousness, saying that even at the age of five he was a highly intelligent child who “rode a yacht, did target practice, and liked to read”.
Ms Kim, 32, is now rapidly emerging as the second most powerful person in North Korea. Over the past few years she has been elevated to several important positions and, most importantly, she shares the same “divine” bloodline as her brother.
The Times
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