Yury Razgulayev: It is hard to get an education in the republic of Kyrgyzia

The secondary schools of the republic of Kyrgyzia are currently experiencing a very serious crisis. There is a lack of everything: class rooms, visual aids, text books, and teachers. The situation would be even more difficult if Russia did not render rather considerable help. The Russian embassy annually helps remote village schools and this help costs tens of thousands of dollars. The situation in the majority of the schools is so difficult that the schools, which are provided with text books on the level of 60-80%, are considered to be ok. However, in the schools, there are absolutely no books on some subjects. The schools in remote areas are basically provided with books on the level of 5-6 percent.

The situation with the schools that conduct lessons in Russian is better to a certain extent. The Russian embassy and the Scientific and Cultural Center of the ethnic Russians help them. The situation is very desperate in those schools that teach in the Uzbek language. The text books used to arrive at those schools from the city of Tashkent, which is the capital of the republic of Uzbekistan. However, now, Uzbekistan is using the Roman alphabet and Kyrgyzia has to not only to print the text books for the Uzbek schools but also to write them. There are about 500 thousand Uzbek people living in the south of the republic.

The problem with the teachers is even more complicated – it is getting worse still with every year. The college graduates do not want to work as teacher because of the meagre salary. Therefore, the skeleton of the teaching staff is basically elderly people, even pensioners.

Practically all the schools of the republic of Kyrgyzia do not have enough Kyrgyz and other foreign languages teachers. The same situation is with those schools that teach exact sciences. As a result, there is no one to go to the technical departments of the higher schools or academies of the republic.

Education in the republic is becoming an advantage of the rich nowadays, in other words, for a very small amount of people. Three thirds of the republic’s population is very poor. The average income per capita is $15; one text book costs three to four dollars. The majority of students have to work in construction to earn their living to be able to survive. Fifteen or 20% of the kids do not go to schools at all, and this figure is growing with each year.

Yury Razgulayev PRAVDA.Ru Bishkek Kyrgyzia