Hamhung teachers must now wear skirts in the classroom during North Korea’s October 2026 School Support Month, a rule that has angered female educators who still have to change into work clothes for farm duty after lessons end.
School Support Month is an annual state campaign in which state agencies and enterprises are urged to visit the schools they sponsor and supply them with needed materials.
According to a source in South Hamgyong province, the Hamhung city party committee sharply criticized female teachers at several schools earlier this month for teaching in trousers. The committee is the local arm of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and holds real authority over the city’s schools and administrative bodies.
The source told Daily NK on Tuesday that the dispute began when a city party official visited a school for the campaign and took issue with how the teachers were dressed.
“An official from the city party committee came to a school for School Support Month and complained that the teachers’ clothing was a disgrace,” the source said. “Rural mobilization was scheduled for that afternoon, so the teachers were dressed in something close to work clothes.”
Every fall, North Korean authorities send teachers, students and workers to collective farms to help bring in the harvest, a practice known as rural mobilization.
Schools across Hamhung then began requiring female teachers to wear skirts while teaching. Officials argued that staff from sponsoring agencies visit often during the campaign, so teachers in front of a class must look presentable.
The principal of a senior middle school in Hamhung’s Songchongang district reportedly pleaded with female staff to comply. “Did anyone ever say a word when you wore trousers before?” the principal asked. “Please just wear skirts for now, while officials are coming and going.”
Senior middle schools cover the final three years of North Korea’s 12-year compulsory education system and are roughly equivalent to high schools elsewhere.
For women already facing farm work after class, however, the skirt rule has become a daily hassle and a source of resentment. They have to change back into trousers before they can head out to the fields.
“Teachers who live nearby go home during their lunch break to change, and those who live farther away bring a pair of trousers to work,” the source said. “Schools don’t have a proper place to change either, so some teachers make their students wait in the hallway while they change inside the classroom.”
Hamhung teachers question what the campaign delivers
Teachers are also increasingly skeptical that School Support Month does much to improve conditions in North Korean classrooms.
Authorities encourage state agencies and enterprises to visit their assigned schools and provide supplies. Yet the source said facilities have barely improved despite the steady stream of visitors.
There is talk each year of donating computers and other teaching equipment during the campaign. According to the source, however, nothing visible has changed, and students often end up paying to repair even broken desks and chairs.
Such informal charges are a long-standing grievance for North Korean families, who are routinely asked to cover school costs despite the state’s promise of free education.
As a result, some teachers say sponsoring agencies and enterprises care more about logging visits to meet quotas than about giving schools real support.
The complaints surface as North Korean state media continue to promote Kim Jong Un’s emphasis on education, including his recent speech at Kim Il Sung University.
“Nothing actually helps the schools or the students, yet teachers get harassed about looking neat, so people are even saying it would be better not to have this kind of month at all,” the source said. “Party officials rarely visit rural schools, so some teachers say this is one time when working on the outskirts is actually better.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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