Once severely autistic, the girl is taking dictation with Korean language study support app Twinkling Star.

“My daughter now mixes with her classmates and does writing well, thanks to Vice-Principal Yu Yong Hui,” said An’s mother Ri Jong Hui.

Three years ago, the girl entered Kinmaul Primary School in Moranbong District, Pyongyang.

Her mental illness was very serious at the time. She failed to form relations with her mates and understand the instructions of her teacher. She was unable to write even a letter.

“I sometimes wished if she were physically ill,” recalled her father An Chol Ho.

Yu Yong Hui volunteered to take charge of her schooling.

The teacher with a ten-odd-year career had no former experience in teaching such a case, so she pored over relevant books and consulted doctors and other experts to find out an appropriate teaching method. She often inspected An’s class at work and sometimes followed her home after school to observe her behaviour on the road and at home.

“In the course of this I realized that Cho Ryon also had love for her parents who take warm care of her, she was happy when others kept company with her, she wanted to share affection with others and she spoke simple words to those she regarded as close ones,” Yu said.

Under the vice-principal’s scrupulous care, An gradually gained self-confidence.

Yu patiently taught her how to write in a quiet room.

At the beginning, An found it difficult to write even a line of a Korean letter. Whenever she was unwilling to write, the vice-principal would bring her out to show her flowers and the like and got her to repeat after her so that she could remember words. Though she wrote and spoke incorrectly, the teacher often praised her, giving her full marks.

Cho Ryon began to open her heart under the care and with the help of Yu and her teacher in charge Jang Un Ok, classmates and the whole school.

And she came to articulately address the vice-principal, and she played merrily with her friends as she became able to communicate with them.

“Cho Ryon is now conscious that she has to study and write at school and she studies hard. She learned the Korean alphabet and writes patchim (consonants subjoined at the end of Korean orthographic syllables),” says her teacher in charge.

And her mother says that although disabled persons are often regarded as a burden in families and communities in any society, she has come to have hope for her daughter’s bright future without paying even a penny, expressing her gratitude to the teachers.

But Yu Yong Hui says she has done what educators have to do, adding that Cho Ryon and other children with disabilities can study to their heart’s content thanks to the free, compulsory socialist educational system.