Kang Yong Il, department director of the Education Commission, told KCNA:

The Supreme Leader's New Year Address serves as a victorious banner clearly showing the road to be followed by the country and the people this year.

Through the proud successes made in the field of education last year, a year of science and education, we came to cherish deeper in our minds the faith that the Workers' Party of Korea's decision is science and victory.

This year, too, we will bring about a fresh epochal turn in the educational development.

We will further raise the level of teacher-training universities and build up the ranks of competent educators.

And efforts will be directed to improving the standard of tele-education so as to steadily raise the teachers' capability and qualification and better the educational contents and methods at educational institutions as required by the trend of developing modern education.

Pang Sung Son, principal of Pyongyang Secondary School No. 1, said:

All the teachers of the school are replete with the resolve to glorify this year as a year of another progress in effecting a radical improvement in education in the new century.

We will concentrate all our efforts on giving fullest play to the advantage of the universal 12-year compulsory education system.

We will train more talents by making effective use of modern educational equipment and means and creating and developing superior educational methods.