North Korean students are toiling under so-called “kids’ plan” tasks, even during vacation. The vacation is supposed to be for rest and recharging, yet social tasks never end, and with the burden entirely shifted onto parents, people complain that the state leaves them little more than husks.
“Students in Chongjin are now working to collect scrap iron, scrap rubber, and scrap paper,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “This is because if students don’t carry out ‘kids’ plan’ tasks during vacation, they can come under fire during struggle sessions when classes begin.”
The “kids’ plan” is a set of tasks given to students to collect materials, ostensibly to do good works for the nation. Such tasks are given during the semester and vacation—it’s a long-standing practice, and winter vacations are no exception.
Students in third grade of elementary school or higher in Chongjin were tasked with collecting 3 kilograms of scrap metal, 1 kilogram of scrap rubber, 1 kilogram of scrap paper, 5 empty bottles, and 10 bottles of penicillin or mycillin. Quotas differ slightly between schools and classes, but the provisions are roughly similar.
Students bring what they collected not to their schools but to designated collection centers, where they receive a “collection certificate” to submit to their schools.
Pressure builds as vacation ends
Middle and high school students are now under particular pressure to fulfill their tasks. This is because although elementary schools are on vacation through Feb. 16, middle and high schools reopen on Feb. 2, so students are scrambling to do whatever they can to fulfill their quotas before then.
If students fail to meet their quotas, they may come under criticism during the first-week struggle session or monthly struggle sessions, putting them under inevitable psychological pressure as the end of vacation approaches. Accordingly, they are working to fulfill at least some of their quotas, even if they cannot fulfill all of them.
The problem is that these tasks ultimately fall upon parents. Practically speaking, students cannot collect materials like scrap iron by wandering the streets, so parents have to spend money to fulfill the quotas so their children avoid coming under fire during struggle sessions.
“Young children are sensitive to criticism—if they get criticized, it scars them for a long time,” the source said. “So parents scramble to collect materials or spend money to resolve their children’s quotas so that they don’t get criticized during struggle sessions.”
Since parents must fulfill not only their children’s quotas but also their own myriad social tasks, they suffer under several layers of burden, with some people complaining that “kids’ quotas shouldn’t be given, at least during vacation,” and that such burdens “leave people nothing but husks.”
“Poor families really feel the burden,” the source said. “The children of officials’ families can use their parents’ power to get collection certificates without collecting anything—it just takes a single word. But ordinary families have to collect or purchase the materials required for submission, and if they don’t, they must endure criticism. This is the reality here in North Korea.”
January 27, 2026 at 07:49PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)