North Korean parents are taking turns gathering firewood to heat their children’s classrooms after prices more than doubled from $28 to $69 per cubic meter, with only eight of 27 families at one Hamhung middle school able to pay cash upfront.
“Parents at some schools in Hamhung and other parts of the province have been roaming through the woods to gather firewood. Parents are responsible for providing the firewood needed to heat their children’s classrooms,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK recently.
Keeping classrooms supplied with fuel for their wood-burning stoves used to be the responsibility of the schools or local administrative bodies, but the job was long ago handed off to students and their parents. That job has been particularly tough this year given a sharp increase in the price of firewood.
Until last year, a cubic meter of firewood cost around 200,000 North Korean won at a marketplace. But this year, the price has more than doubled to 500,000 won, the source said.
Homeroom teachers offer families choice: supply wood, pay cash or take daily turns
As firewood gets pricier, homeroom teachers handed around a form asking parents to choose whether to supply firewood in advance, pay an equivalent amount of cash or take turns gathering the firewood for each day.
When families bring their own firewood or pay cash for it to be purchased on their behalf, the firewood is stacked up in a corner of the classroom for use throughout the winter. But families who couldn’t afford either of those options opt for a daily rotation where they take turns supplying the class’s daily firewood needs.
In the past, it was typical to pay cash or bring firewood in advance. But this year, since firewood has gotten so expensive, many parents have reportedly opted for “firewood duty.”
At one middle school in Hamhung, the families of just eight of 27 students paid cash while the remainder are taking turns on firewood duty. That suggests that most families are not in a position to bring their firewood allotment in advance or pay a cash equivalent.
When a family is on firewood duty, it’s their job to supply all the firewood needed to keep the classroom warm for one day. Parents who can’t afford to buy a day’s worth of firewood have to head out of town to find some. Sometimes, the students themselves take a few days off of school to collect their quota of firewood.
“If the student who is on fire duty doesn’t bring firewood, the class has to study in the cold all day long. Since the whole class depends on a single person for the day’s heating, parents and even the students themselves go out to gather firewood,” the source said.
“Families have little choice but to go to the woods despite the risk of punishment if forest rangers catch them. But even most rangers look the other way when they hear the reason.”
One downside of hurriedly gathering firewood is that most of the wood is green, rather than properly dried. Green wood doesn’t catch fire easily, and when it finally does, it releases a lot of smoke, which can interfere with classroom studies.
“When green firewood is used, the classroom is filled with smoke that irritates the eyes and throat and gets in the way of the lesson. In effect, classroom heating is a big headache for everybody, and there’s little we can do but hope this vicious cycle won’t last forever,” the source said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
