Mick Hartley

Reasons to study hard for those exams: failure could see you doing hard labour.

North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) launched a sweeping inspection of senior middle schools in 2026 after a new elective subject system introduced at the start of the academic year produced mass failures in specialization track exams.

A source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Friday that “a significant number of students fell below the required standard during specialization track exams conducted after the new semester began” at senior middle schools, the equivalent of high schools. The source added that the provincial party committee’s education department responded by issuing a stark warning: students who fail to meet the required level will be forcibly assigned to coal mines or construction sites.

Seems a bit harsh. Could there be other factors at play?

Many parents suspect the party is using the “underperforming student” label as a pretext to conscript young people into labor-starved industries such as mining and construction.

Some well-connected parents have reportedly gone so far as to exhaust their family savings in an attempt to bribe officials and prevent their children from being demoted and sent to harsh work sites. However, the source said the party is pressing the matter so forcefully that bribery is not working, leaving parents anxious and uncertain about what to do.

Teachers are also caught in the fallout. The source said instructors are being held collectively responsible for their students’ poor results, leaving them “trembling with fear.” At one No. 1 Middle School in North Hamgyong province, a homeroom teacher who had vouched for a student’s ability was branded an “incompetent ideological saboteur” and removed from the classroom after the student performed poorly on the exam. That case is now being cited as a representative example of collective punishment, and fear is spreading among teaching staff across the province.