One day a decade ago, a middle-aged woman entered the playground of the June 9 Ryongbuk Senior Middle School in Taesong District, Pyongyang.

She was Choe Yong Sun who was newly appointed to the head teacher of the middle school after years of stint as the deputy principal of a school in the district.

She looked round the school with unusual emotion.

The school was where she spent her middle school days and worked as a teacher for more than 20 years.

More importantly, President Kim Il Sung personally chose the site of the school and named it. And the school was honoured to be visited by the President and Chairman Kim Jong Il . Thinking that she was now in charge of the school, she made a fresh resolve.

“That day I decided to devote my all to making this school, one of the several schools associated with the leadership exploits of the President and the Chairman in the city, a model unit for the whole country,” recalled Choe.

One of the priority projects she pushed forward with an aggressive determination was to improve the educational conditions and environment of the school.

In 2016 the construction of Ryomyong Street started around her school.

Choe and her colleagues made untiring efforts to renovate the school for the students who were to live in modern flats. They transformed the appearance of the school beyond recognition in a matter of two years.

Meanwhile, she paid close attention to improving the qualifications of teachers.

To this end she gave her own opinion of the merits and demerits of the teachers by frequently organizing inspections of lessons, and unsparingly passed her knowledge and experience to them. And she also organized a meeting for swapping experience every week to raise a strong wind of improving qualifications among the teachers. This helped an increasing number of teachers possess a higher degree of qualifications, with new teaching methods created and STEM education adopted. All the teaching procedures switched from the teacher-centred approach to a student-centred style.

A few years later, the school rose to fame as a school with a high degree of teaching qualifications of the teachers and academic performance of the students, leading other schools in sports, art and all other aspects.

The teaching staff also developed several educational support programs which were highly appreciated at various exhibitions and generalized across the country. In 2022 it was chosen as one of the nation’s top ten IT model units, and its students always won nationwide foreign language dialogue competitions and other academic contests. More than a hundred students entered institutions of higher education every year. One of its graduates took the first place at CodeChef, an international coding contest, after a year of study at a university. Besides, it runs hobby groups of table tennis, fine art, brass band and other subjects, winning several national contests.

Choe has also paid close attention to training the students to be mentally and morally sound and patriotic enough to dedicate themselves to the country. Some of her students won Kim Il Sung Children Honour Prize and Kim Jong Il Children Honour Prize.

In her 40-odd-year teaching career starting from her maidenhood, she took part in the 14th National Conference of Teachers and the celebrations of the 75th founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, and had the honour of having photographs taken with the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un . And she was also awarded the title of Merited Teacher.

Jong Hwa Sun