Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) --Respected Comrade
The full text of the speech is as follows:
Teachers, researchers and students of
Officials and employees of the university,
Dear comrades,
I am very pleased to be celebrating with you the historic day when this prestigious university is greeting its 80th founding anniversary.
As I am standing here, I can see the university's thousands of educators and 10 000 or so students brimming wit
This university is the parent body in which the training of our state's native cadres began, the "pedigree farm" where large numbers of backbone personnel with loyalty to the Party and the revolution have been produced, and the highest academic institution which represents Korea's intellect and civilization. Indeed, the university's 80th founding anniversary is a source of great pride and an auspicious event for our country.
On the occasion of this anniversary of the university, which is famed for its most honourable name and history, I would like, first of all, to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all its teachers and researchers who are devoting themselves heart and soul to performing their ennobling duties faithfully at this sacred educational institution.
I also offer my warm encouragement to all the students who are applying themselves to learning and research with an ambitious aim and passion to exalt the honour of this country.
In addition, my greetings go to the foreign students, who, together with our students, work hard to enrich their knowledge and deepen the feelings of friendship, as well as to the Korean educationalists from overseas and foreign friends who have been invited here to share this significant event with us.
I send my greetings also to many comrades who are present at this celebration, and to all the graduates from this university who, wherever they live in the country, would be recollecting their student days with deep emotion and extending their best wishes to their alma mater on its founding anniversary.
Comrades,
As I am on this historic campus, I more deeply appreciate the ennobling ideal that was set forth in the initial days of nation building 80 years ago.
This "pedigree farm" for training talented personnel who would form the backbone of our state was built before anything else, and it was based on a determination to establish a powerful, independent and sovereign state lest another bitter disgrace of history be brought upon the Korean people, resourceful, diligent and rig
This day 80 years back was a momentous day which witnessed, along with the birth of a new, democratic Korea, the founding of the parent body for training its valuable native cadres, and it was a historic watershed which highlig
This was how Korea's education took its first step.
Many universities in the world boast long histories and high reputations, but I am sure there is no such university as
As the highest educational institution in the country, this is an authoritative university that symbolizes our state and has propelled it towards prosperity and development, and a prestigious university that has produced most talented personnel representing our people's wisdom and creativity.
At the time of its establis
In following its historic course through decades and generations, the university has rendered a great contribution to promoting the development of the state.
With this university as the parent body, a number of universities and colleges have been established, which has helped setting the framework of our education. By responding to the call of the times for the past 80 years, graduates from this university have strived hard to perform their ennobling duties and responsibilities as main pillars at the Party's and the state's leadership organs and in major sectors and units; their role as the state's loyal and devoted servants has been very active.
Still today, these graduates hold the state's important positions.
This fact illustrates the university's role and position in the development of the state.
Glorious is the university's 80-year history; from the first days of our Republic to this date, the university has ac
I courteously propose that we pay our respects to the university's first Chancellor Ho Hon as well as to Kim Ji Jong, To Sang Rok, Pak Si Hyong, C
Comrades,
At this moment when we look back on the annals of history of the university, which is replete wit
At the celebration held on the first anniversary of this university, the great leader Comrade
This is a truly meaningful remark.
Just at its inception, the university began to share its destiny with our state, and its development has since been part and parcel of our state's development.
The prestige and dignity the university has won through its historic struggle and exploits is something to be proud of, but we must in no way hold it simply for a historical record or a legacy of the past.
More important for us is the coming 80 years than the past 80 years, and heavier is the responsibility we bear for the future.
This is the time when the functions and role of the university are incomparably important and decisive for the present and future of our country.
We must be much more powerful.
Surpassing the era of harbouring a great ambition, dreams and desires, we should usher in an era of putting them into practice and reality, and more importantly, we should have such a will and self-confidence.
In reality, our socialist construction is going on in greater depth in greater realms, so it requires competent cadres and able personnel who can skilfully lead the relevant sectors, fields and regions with confidence in their revolutionary cause. This demands that the university further enhance its leading role in developing the science and education of the country by leaps and bounds and in terms of quality.
This is clearly an era when both national sovereignty and prestige depend on educational development and sovereignty in scientific and technological research.
Only when this university produces such good revolutionary personnel, namely, first-rate personnel equipped with an ennobling spirit and morality, high scientific and theoretical qualifications and creative abilities, can we preserve the character of the Korean revolution which is free from stagnation or retreat, and make an excellent success of our strategy for nation building.
It is by no means wrong to say that the future of our country, to say nothing of today and tomorrow of education and science, is determined precisely at this campus.
In our country none of its peers could be on a par with this university in terms of importance of their missions as each of its affairs has a direct bearing on the dignity and future of the country.
Needless to say, the university should take the lead in the honourable struggle to build a powerful and prosperous country.
This view of ours and the common understanding and expectations of everyone in this country precisely stand for the honour, glory and sacred duty of this university.
Considering this serious demand of the times and the expectations of the people, and facing this crucial historic point of national development, no other unit but this very university should rise up just like it did to lay the foundations for education and scientific research in its initial days. In this way it can make another event worth mentioning as its re-founding, and lay a solid strategic line for the future.
In recent years the Party Central Committee put forward the line of building an educational power and a talent power, and has consistently maintained the stand with which to give priority to educational development; it made a series of important decisions for modernization of education and the building of an educational power, and has effectively led the educational sector to ac
An educational power, a sci-tech power and a talent power to be built are the t
It is essential to prepare the leading, driving force if we are to accomplish the t
The university should play a core and leading role in carrying out several urgent tasks that still remain undone in the field of education and, more importantly, in overhauling the education system of the country as a whole.
The educational power we are going to build is a revolutionary, advanced and people-oriented one of our own style. To this end, the main orientation should be to guarantee the development and prosperity of our socialist state by dint of education; the fundamental principle, to strictly adhere to the Party's ideas and theories on education; the basic task, to train talented revolutionaries, possessed of excellent spiritual and moral traits and high intellectual and practical abilities, who will serve the state and the people; the main goal, to reduce regional differences in the educational level and make all the people well-versed in science and technology; the important function, to support and lead the comprehensive development of the state; the main motive force for development, to build up the ranks of teachers in terms of quality; the basic way, to update the educational structure, system, contents and methods and ensure the qualitative improvement of the educational conditions and environment; and the basic guarantee, to strengthen the guidance and assistance by the Party and the state and increase social support for education. In the long run, we will develop our education into the one to which we can fully entrust the future of our state and people.
It should train talented revolutionaries who will serve their country and people both in name and in reality.
Because of a historical factor that compelled our state to pioneer a path for national defence and prosperity in a very special geopolitical environment, and because of our people's strong desire for building a powerful country, the levels and hallmarks of talented personnel required by our country were also unusual.
The university should produce not merely experts with qualifications in their specialist fields; it is required to train able revolutionary personnel who will faithfully serve our state and our people.
In trying to develop it into one of the most prestigious universities in the world, we are not aiming to raise its prestige or imitate others; our goal is to train more excellent personnel who will make a genuine contribution to accomplishing our revolutionary cause and become strong buttresses in building up our national power and providing our people with a happy life.
The contents and methods of teaching should be steadily updated in keeping with the trend of the times, but the true intention behind founding the university and its main function should remain unchanged.
The aspirations of all officials, teachers, researchers and students of the university should be in accord with the ennobling ideal of patriotism.
The university should set it as its immutable educational programme, its first and foremost one, to train all its students to be elite personnel who cherish the Party's intention and will as an element of their own faith and regard it as their lifelong goal to build the future as designed by the Party.
It should encourage all its students to have a good understanding of our Party's ideas and policies, cultivate revolutionary traits, and learn from the thoughts, spirit and willpower which their seniors cherished in training their minds and broadening their horizons of knowledge to leave remarkable imprints in the history of development of the Party and the state.
It should work out and put into effect proper courses of education and edification so that the students, fully aware of their heavy duty, can train themselves in practice while gaining firsthand experience of the reality through various production internships and socio-political activities.
I stress once again: This is a people's university which was established thanks to the ardent patriotism of our people who were determined to develop theirs into a prosperous and powerful country, and its dignified name, symbolic of its prestige and honour, was also instituted according to the unanimous will of our people.
Our people's expectations of the university were always unusual, and their desire for it still remains unchanged.
Before being recognized by the world in terms of any certain indexes or items, it should naturally be appreciated by the country and the people for its true and sound educational courses and the successes resulting from them, and its position should be verified by them.
As it is a learning space for the people's sons and daug
Any unfair and ambiguous elements that are detested by the people and unacceptable to them must never be allowed to exist in this people's university.
The discipline of
There should prevail on this campus the discipline and climate of remaining faithful to the Constitution of the Republic and to moral obligation, and all
Comrades,
Today, availing myself of this opportunity when I am meeting with you, teachers and researchers of the university, I want to make a particular reference to the need to improve the quality of education.
We should adhere to the principle of setting the high objective for qualitative development as the lifeblood of education at all levels, and set up an educational system of high qualitative level as quickly as possible.
The university, shouldering the important political responsibility for ac
By comparing the present state of our education with the global trends in educational development, it should discover a shortcut to attaining a higher stage and study and update its educational structure and system so that it can produce more excellent revolutionary personnel as we need.
It should improve the contents and methods of education in keeping with the present reality that is different from the past and according to the rapidly-changing trends of the times.
It should improve the contents of education in the direction of training personnel who are possessed of a scientific way of thinking and practical methodology in addition to a rich knowledge of their major and relevant fields, and it should also steadily develop its teaching methods so that the students can have great abilities to analyze, think creatively and apply in practice.
The fundamental key to improving the quality of education is decisively to enhance the qualifications of teachers.
I regard strengthening the ranks of university teachers as the most important prerequisite for building an educational power.
However advanced the educational equipment, facilities, system, environment, methods and others may be, the qualitative instruction by a teacher is unthinkable apart from his or her leading role. So, it is essential to reinforce and perfect the teacher training system, and this should be the starting point for all affairs, I think.
The quality of education at
The university should create standard models for most rational, productive and efficient structure, system, contents and methods of education, and use its influence in developing the country's education as a whole.
Comrades,
Our Party expects that the university, as befitting the country's cardinal and authoritative educational institution and its academic research institute, will play a greater role in developing the country's science.
The university should defend our Party's revolutionary ideology and theories, steadily explore and develop more academic domains needed for the present and future of nation building, enhance the state's competitive edge in science and technology, and give a strong push to the research projects that are conducive to putting the economy on an advanced and modern basis.
The university should encourage the sector of basic sciences, which is its peculiar advantage and a source of pride for it, to perform a distinct role in rendering services to carrying out the ambitious tasks for the technological revolution in the new era and opening up a shortcut to the future.
In order to add lustre to its honour as an authoritative and influential university in line with the demands of both global trend and our reality, it should play a core role in creating cutting-edge industries.
This university, which has nearly all academic subjects of theoretical and applied sciences and many outstanding personnel, can serve as a base for establishing those industries. It also can be called fertile soil capable of growing new sprouts and stems of our economy that will compete with the world on its own terms.
This is quite feasible if scientific planning is followed by investment and organizational work, since the university has prestigious research institutes of distinguished service, and has accumulated experience in the course of integrating education, scientific research and production.
I believe the university will take a lion's share in completely upgrading the features of our national economy and putting it on a new trajectory of development.
As befitting a world-class university and the highest-level university in the country, it should proactively conduct exchanges and cooperation with famous universities and scientific research institutions in other countries.
All the teachers and researchers of the university should make strenuous efforts to become the foundations for training excellent revolutionary personnel, not with their honour or academic degrees and titles but with conscience as educators and with whole-hearted devotion.
The illustrious educators who had their names recorded in the history of the university were stronger than any others in their desire for, and demand in, training even one more talented person in their academic fields for the good of the country.
They were literally faithful servants of the country and patriots, before being teachers.
When all the educators of the new generation hold in reverence the ennobling spirit and conscience of the preceding generations and adopt the aspiration and will to carry them forward as their ideological feelings, the history in which patriotism begets patriotism and a talent trains more talented personnel will go on.
All the educators of the university should, with a more soaring spirit and with more steadfast fortitude and will, open up a new, great phase of socialist education in the new era and contribute to the rapid development and prosperity of the country.
Dear students of
The honour of this dignified university and the future of the country depend on your shoulders.
You should set by yourselves the height of your practical abilities to be attained during your university days and value every second of your university life with a single desire to remain honourable before your motherland by dint of your knowledge and talents.
With a sense of sacred consciousness, you should continue to cultivate a good habit of studying and to create an atmosphere of innovation and competition.
You should have a strong sense of self-respect and self-confidence to make your country more powerful and prosperous, an ambition and courage to strike the world with admiration, and excellent academic records associated with your conscience and passion.
I put trust in the educators and students of
You should learn and work harder for the prosperity of our state, the wellbeing of our people, and the advance of our cause.
As our goal is far-reaching and our task is enormous, the existence of talented personnel will be brought into bolder relief day by day, and the strenuous, devoted efforts made for the present struggle will produce rich, valuable fruits.
I appeal to all comrades who are full of enthusiasm on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the university to write its dignified history more proudly.
Let us advance forward, full of greater confidence, for Korea, our great motherland, and for our great ideals and for our great successes.
I wish
Thank you.
