The Pyongyang College of Food and Daily Necessities Industry is not so big, but it presents in succession distinguished scientific and technical achievements to national universities and colleges’ contests and exhibitions. This arouses the public interest in the educational work of the college.
The college put primary effort into ensuring the practical use of the educational content to suit its peculiarities as a vocational college. Remarkable is the fact that the college sees to it that education of basic subjects as well as that of special subjects is done the way it is aimed at and subordinated to specialized practice.
For example, the college ensures that a derivative lecture in the subject of mathematics consists mainly of explanations about calculation of lactic acid fermentation speed in making kimchi, speed of swelling of dough by yeast and so on, not merely dealing with it as a mathematical concept.
As a result, the students’ inquiry has become stronger, and the breadth and depth of inquiry have changed. And the course of special education has changed to help students master the theories and techniques needed for making goods at foodstuff factories and daily necessities factories in Pyongyang.
The college also strove to develop new teaching methods for improving students’ practical ability as required by the developing reality. Recently, teachers developed new teaching methods for helping students more quickly get practical knowledge and put it to practical use.
For example, Ri Chang Su, one of the teachers, uses a method of simultaneously giving a lecture and conducting a relevant experiment, instead of the previous method of putting the main stress on theory. This has made epoch-making progress in improving students’ cognitive faculty and practical ability, and enabled him to win a national technical colleges’ teaching contest held last year.
Besides, the college established relevant practice shops on a modern basis as required by the new century, so that all the practice can be done in conditions just like those of real factories.
This makes it possible for students to personally operate drink and confectionary production equipment that is on the scale of 1:10 but the same in performance as those at factories, thus mastering the machines, and explore and experiment ways to technically improve their performance.
Now graduates from the college are held in respect as master inventors and versatile persons in their working places.
Jong Kwang Song received the Student’s Scientific Research Prize by winning the top place at the national exhibition of information sci-tech achievements of university students for his new maize seed coating material he had invented last year. He says, “Our college is not large but it provides us with all needed for our scientific invention. The teachers, who are steadily exploring the way of bringing us up into able technicians with practical ability, are the models for us to follow. I’d like to express my thanks to the teachers who have led us up to this high level today.”
Article: Chae Kwang Myong
