Class sizes in North Korea are shrinking as more women become breadwinners

As students entered their primary classrooms this week in North Korea for the start of the school year, class sizes entering the cities were noticeably smaller, a reflection of the country’s declining birth rate. as more women become breadwinners for their families, sources in the country said.

The trend appears to be making authorities nervous, a person who works in education in South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Yesterday we welcomed newly enrolled students to Toksong Elementary School, but there were not many new students,” he saying. “Ten years ago, we used to divide incoming new students into four or five separate classes, but every year the number of new students decreases. So there are only three (first grade) classes this year.”

Each of the three classes has about 30 students in this particular school. But other city schools seem to be seeing the same pattern, although it’s less noticeable in rural areas, where families are larger.

That’s less than the 45 kids per classroom in the 1980s, which then steadily declined over the years since.

Women breadwinners

Demographics and the economy are driving the trend.

The decline is directly related to more women working and becoming the main breadwinner for their families, according to a North Korean fugitive using the pseudonym Kim Hak-myong, who worked as a high school teacher for 20 years until he fled the country in 2015.

Most North Korean men work government-appointed jobs and receive paltry wages that are not enough to support their families.

Therefore, their wives have had to start side businesses, such as setting up market stalls to sell food or other items, which now make much more money than most of their husbands.

That has made it more difficult for women to give birth and raise children.

In cities like Pyongsong, the provincial capital of South Pyongan, nine out of 10 women ran businesses in the market and served as breadwinners for their families, the first source said.

“With more women running these businesses, they tend to give birth to only one child,” she said. “If you have many children, the competition will drive you out of the market and it will be difficult to earn a living.”

North Korea’s birth rate last year was about 1.9 children per woman, just below the replacement rate of 2.1 births, according to the State of the World Population Report 2022 from the North Korean Population Fund. The United Nations. That’s down from about 4 births per woman in the 1970s and 2.3 births per woman in the 1990s.

‘one son’

The government used to provide food subsidies to families with more children, but now that these subsidies have stopped, women are choosing to have only one child, or two at most, said a second source who lives in the northwestern province of North Pyongan.

“Today, the government just tells people to have more children and doesn’t provide food, so women who have to work to feed their families are giving up giving birth to focus on the business,” she said. . “Because of this reality, the number of students enrolled in elementary school is declining.”

When he went to the local elementary school on April 1 to congratulate his nephew on his first day of school, he was surprised at the small class sizes.

“Five years ago, when my daughter entered (the same) school, there were about 80 students enrolled, but this year there were about 60 students,” she said. “The educational authorities are also attentive to how much the decrease will be this year.”

intensification of competition

Kim, the runaway and former educator, said the reduction in class sizes became visible in the 2010s, “as women started setting up their businesses in the market, (new students) started to drop off markedly.”

Also, more young women are enlisting in the military and avoiding giving birth because it costs too much to raise even one child properly, she said.

Dwindling enrollment has led to competition among families to get their children into good schools, Kim said.

“Originally, you were supposed to go to the school near your house,” he said. “But now when there is a (highly qualified) math teacher in a good school, the number of students goes up because more students go to that school.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.