Ham Jong Ho(pictured), a special-class honoured disabled soldier living in neighbourhood unit No. 7 of Jongo-dong No. 1 in Rangnang District, Pyongyang, graduated from Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry last March.
“I’ve completed the university course that I wanted to do so much and I found so difficult to do. I have been able to get this diploma thanks to those who cared for me with sincere devotion,” said Ham excitedly after receiving his diploma.
He had lost his two arms due to the wounds he suffered during the execution of his military duty.
When he returned home after his demob, he was warmly welcomed by all villagers as well as his family members.
“It is natural for a soldier to dedicate himself to national defence, but lots of people held me dear and showed me warm affection. They gave me great encouragement and although I have no arms I was enrolled at the university with the determination to work for the country and society,” recalled Ham.
He was accepted at the online education faculty of Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry in 2016, but he realized desire and practice were different things.
The armless young man should always get help of anyone to control his computer and natural science like math and chemistry were tough subjects for him.
“Other students finished their one-term work in some months while doing their jobs, but I could make no progress though I studied the whole day long. So, the lecturers of the university, who had encouraged me to study hard giving me a computer when I entered the university, made time for me unsparingly,” Ham said.
According to the measure of the faculty, lecturers Kim Hae Yong and Ri Un Jong took charge of Ham’s study and they visited him almost every day to teach him.
Busy as they were with education at the university, they worked out special teaching plans and collected appropriate reference materials for him and visited him on their way back home to explain what he found it hard to understand until late at night. They even devoted their holidays to the education of him.
The faculty separately arranged for him the experiments and on-the-spot training in the curriculum and updated his speech recognition program.
Consequently, he finished the first-term course in a year and later term courses respectively in ten, six and three months.
At last he passed all of some 20 subjects with good marks.
He is now doing research to introduce what he learnt at the university into practice.
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