[lg policy] Kyrgyz education: one Russian schoolbook for two

[Harold Schiffman]

Kyrgyz education: one Russian schoolbook for two
23/09-2009 14:47, Bishkek - News Agency "24.kg", By Bolotbek KOLBAEV

"Kyrgyz schools are supplied with textbooks by 57 percent," Damira
Kudaibergenova, chief of the school and preschool education department
has told in an interview with the news agency 24.kg. One simple
calculation shows that school children have one textbook for two. The
books are old and out of date. "Kyrgyzstan is in urgent need of new
school books," the official said. Where did our patriotism go?  In
2009 Kyrgyz government reportedly issued 100 million soms for new
school books' purchase. But this was not enough to provide all schools
with required literature. "Besides, schools desperately need new
computers, while Internet remains unprecedented luxury,"
Kudaibergenova said.



Usually schoolbooks are brought from Russia introducing beautiful
Russian state symbols into the children's lives. But what about Kyrgyz
symbols? Where did our patriotism go?
"Quality of Kyrgyz-made schoolbooks is rather poor. We have to use
Russian books, which are much better. Kyrgyzstan is full of modern
authors and everyone writes in his/her own way. It especially concerns
books for Kyrgyz language schools. We should filter out school books
before including them into the education process," said Gulmira
Ibraeva, the vice-principle of Bishkek school No. 49. Soviet times were
known for great quality and knowledgeable content of books. But those
times are long gone, together with education tendencies. One can learn
history from several books and receive absolutely contradictory facts.



Kyrgyzstan outranks Lichtenstein in...



Damira Kudaibergenova points that today Kyrgyzstan counts about 1
million and 50 thousand school students, which is 90 percent from the
total number of school-age children of the country. However, 10
percent are left without education. According to official statistics
up to 116 thousand children of Kyrgyzstan do not go to schools, which
is four times more than population of Lichtenstein. Today Kyrgyzstan
takes critical measures to correct the situation and eradicate
illiteracy. "We open evening courses for workers, while handicaps are
officially allowed to study at home," Kudaibergenova said. In the
world the number of illiterate adults has hit 774 millions, while
number of uneducated children in the world reaches 72 million. As a
matter of fact, Kyrgyzstan actively contributes to this amount.



Postscript

Therewith there is no guarantee that those 90 percent of children
attending schools will grow into educated and literate adults, as
school gives only basic education. In our case it is either
Russian-interesting and qualitative, but not ours, or Kyrgyz -
patriotic, but not qualitative. In the meantime, in 1996 UNESCO
established the International Literacy Day to be marked on September
8. Few know about this date in Kyrgyzstan...


URL: http://eng.24.kg/viewpoints/2009/09/23/9106.html
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