NO EDUCATION – PROSPEROUS FUTURE FOR TURKMENISTAN?

Last
month, the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan suspended the money transfers
through state banks to pay for part-time education abroad. It has further
limited the access to education, the level of which has constantly been
declining during the last decade, now outside the country.

The
education reforms in the country have been fluctuating owing to the personal
whims of the President. He has changed his position drastically two times. An
‘English-for-all’ policy was pursued during the first half of 1990s, which
marginalized the knowledge of Russian among the population. A few years later,
all English courses were cancelled throughout the country, wit the exception
of a few small schools. The President began pushing for nine-year school
education, which has finally been put into practice during the last two years.
Considering the three-months mandatory cotton picking periods in the fall of
every year, the number of which amounts to two academic years by the end of
schooling, the general education of ninety-nine percent of the all the state
schools is normal">de facto seven years. In 1999 about 100,000 high school graduates
were offered a little over 3150 places in the institutes and universities by
the President himself. In Kyrgyzstan there are 120,000 students at the moment,
whereas in Turkmenistan this number does not exceed 20,000. Consequently, due
to the declining number of university places, the amount of students going to
study abroad full-time or part-time has significantly increased. The different
currency exchange rates in the state banks and black markets allowed citizens
to fund their education abroad, due to the subsidized official rate transfers.
In other words, one could sell a dollar in the black market, take the local
money to the bank, exchange it to four dollars through the transfer, and send
it abroad to pay the tuition.  

The
result of canceling the bank transfers to pay for a part-time education will
reduce the level of education in the country radically. The implicit aim of
the nine year school policy was to make to it impossible for the students to
study abroad at any type of higher education establishment, as the widely
accepted requirement abroad is 10 to 11 years. Even the American University in
Kyrgyzstan is about to play into the hands of the Turkmen President’s policy
by its reluctance to allow Turkmenistani high school students to take part in
the upcoming entrance exams in July 2001. Added to this school policy, the new
financial cutback will mainly affect middle-income families throughout the
country, since only they are forced to search for different means of educating
their children outside the country. Inside the country, the notoriously
corrupted educational system is solely open to the top few percent of the
population. At the same time, the educational level of these institutions is
far from acceptable. Logically, it would seem that the best choice for all who
can afford it is to study abroad. But this possibility has been greatly
discouraged by another decree of the President, which requires such students
to translate their Master’s and Ph. D. theses into Turkmen and present it in
front of the President’s Commission for approval and state recognition, if
the latter finds it suitable for the country’s general prosperity. 

The
recent cutback, and talks of action constraining the possibilities of
full-time foreign education, falls into the line of unsuccessful state
educational policies in Turkmenistan, since the President has taken the matter
fully in his own hands. Personal decision-making in this area constantly led
to the continuous reshuffling of all educational establishments’ staff. No
one dares to challenge any policies of the life-long President of
Turkmenistan. Yet everyone wonders how the country is going to develop without
educational resources. 

By
Bakyt Meredov