culture

Pyongyang Municipal Taekwon-Do College is one of the educational units contributing to the development of the nation’s orthodox martial art.

Its predecessor was Pyongyang municipal Taekwon-Do school which consisted of four departments teaching some 240 students. Later, it was developed into a college. Its educational system has been reorganized, and departments and students have also increased in number.

At present, it offers a four-year college course and three-year upper secondary course, and over 600 students attend the college.

According to Son Jong Ho, rector of the college, new students are mainly selected from Taekwon-Do schools, schoolchildren’s palaces and district extracurricular sports schools in Pyongyang, and also from among graduating class students of junior middle schools and senior middle school students if necessary.

After finishing the three-year upper secondary course, students join the four-year college course.

Since its inauguration, the college has etched remarkable achievements in its history by concentrating efforts on education for the development of Taekwon-Do.

Students of the college made successive victories and won more than 100 medals in domestic Taekwon-Do games between 2015 and 2019. Especially, Han Ryong Hwa won two gold medals at the 2016 international games.

 As to the secret of such achievements, Son said the college has given priority to improving the qualifications of lecturers with the main stress put on enhancing their practical abilities.

At the college, it is a daily routine for all the lecturers including those who had no playing career and experience to undergo training of Taekwon-Do for over an hour and the college has constantly improved the quality of the training so as to make them acquire richer experience of and theories about Taekwon-Do patterns and sparring and obtain high practical abilities.

As a result, lecturers became able to instruct Taekwon-Do skills to students in a scientific and principled way including the knack of concentration and distribution of power, the regulation of speed, the maintenance of balance and respiratory control, and it was a big help to them in developing various programs, contriving and making training apparatuses and creating new teaching methods needed for further raising the effectiveness of education.

Such programs, training apparatuses and new teaching methods were highly appreciated at the annual national exhibition of sports sci-tech hits in the education sector and a multi-purpose portable physical training device was introduced into Taekwon-Do colleges across the country.

The rector said the college would demonstrate the honour of the homeland of Taekwon-Do by further consolidating the success and experience in the future to develop the education of national martial art.