Students in soccer clubs participate in after-school activities, while those unable to join must perform manual labor like weeding and cleaning
Elementary schools in North Korea are actively operating after-school soccer clubs, likely mirroring the public enthusiasm for the North Korean women’s team’s consecutive victories in the U20 and U17 FIFA World Cups. Nevertheless, students from underprivileged families experience frustration as they are unable to even consider participating in these clubs.
“Students can join the clubs starting from the third grade, usually with two to four students from each class joining. Most come from families with means,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently.
Because one needs to pay for the soccer ball and financially support the teacher instructing the club to join, students from struggling families abandon the idea even if they want to join, the source said.
North Korean propaganda praises the nation’s socialist education system as being free, yet in reality, students and their families are burdened with various economic responsibilities from the start, including “social tasks” mandated by schools.
Furthermore, it is a common expectation in North Korea that parents contribute economically to teachers, who continue to educate their children despite not receiving adequate rations or salaries.
“Families enduring hardship struggle to send their children to local schools, let alone entertain the possibility of their children joining soccer clubs,” the source said. “Children from distressed families are confronted with a reality where they must forgo the opportunity to join soccer clubs, regardless of their desire to participate.”
Students who join the clubs enjoy activities after they complete their classes in the morning, but those who cannot are mobilized for social tasks like pulling weeds, cleaning toilets and tidying up the surroundings.
Scenarios in which children’s involvement in soccer clubs reveals their families’ financial situations can deeply wound young students by highlighting the stark disparities between the wealthy and the poor.
In a third-grade class of an elementary school in Hamhung, 11 out of 25 students are involved in afterschool clubs such as soccer or computer classes, whereas the remaining 14 students are engaged in different social tasks.
The source said one student emotionally pleaded with their parents to fund their soccer aspirations instead of focusing on work, leading to a distressing night for the concerned parents who struggled with their child’s request.
Previously, parents often confronted homeroom teachers, protesting, ‘Why are you only making our kids work?’ However, this is less common now as parents tend to blame themselves if they are unable to support their children adequately.
“Just a few years ago, parents could manage to support their children if they made the effort, but now, they struggle to provide for their children when their earnings from the markets are insufficient to make a living,” the source stated.
Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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