North Korean high schools launch 'debate classes'

By Lee Ji-hye

North Korea has incorporated debate into their high school curriculum, according to a weekly newspaper published in the reclusive state.

The North Korea Weekly Education Newspaper said Sunday that the North is applying “a new format of debate into our mathematics classes, with instructions written in the updated edition of the school textbooks.”

According to the article, instructors “refrain from giving additional explanation until the students are finished with their debate sessions, and will be waiting patiently for them to reach their own conclusions.”

In 2012, the North passed measures to give children 12 years of education rather than the previous 11. While analysts said the measure was an apparent attempt to win popular support for young leader Kim Jong-un, the regime tied the move to efforts to catch up to the world in science and technology.

According to the article, the country introduced revised versions of textbooks last year.

Groups of four to six students will be each given a problem to solve, requiring debate and presentation skills to reach an answer after discussion, the weekly said.

“It will be a new way of teaching information that needs to be registered fully ― not through hasty explanations,” the article said, adding that students should ask themselves, “What can be known through the debate sessions?” and find the value of learning something new.

“This is an advanced way of classes and requires a higher standard for the teachers’ qualities and teaching methods,” the article stated.