As population surges, Kyrgyzstan’s schools buckle

When his son's school in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek started the year without a maths teacher, Azamat Bekenov and his fellow parents had to take to social media themselves to try to find a candidate. Grappling with a surging young population, underfunding, outdated textbooks, overcrowded classes and dilapidated facilities, the poor Central Asian nation is battling to modernise its education system. Unions say the country's schools are on the "brink of collapse", while officials in Bishkek say the problems are a drag on prosperity in the mountainous ex-Soviet country of some seven million people.

“My son didn't have a maths teacher in the first term — high-school students were teaching instead," said Bekenov, who has three children in the Bishkek school system. “We were looking for teachers, I was posting on Facebook.” Eventually a replacement was found. His case is far from an isolated one. There is a shortage of around 1,000 teachers across the country. Around 40 per cent of the population is under the age of 18. And the number of students has jumped by 500,000 — or 50 per cent — over the last 10 years, according to President Sadyr Japarov. The system has been unable to catch up.

"There are 52 students in my son's class and 50 in my daughter's," Bekenov told AFP. "My eldest is doing well — there are only 38 there," he said wryly. Authorities are acutely aware of the problem. They are trying to overhaul a curriculum dubbed "irretrievably obsolete and of very poor quality", and have acknowledged low standards among teachers trained since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The three decades since have been marked by economic collapse, emigration, and social and political instability.

Around a quarter of people still live on the equivalent of less than 50 euros ($58.5) a month.

Education issues have been a major brake on development. Kyrgyzstan's labour productivity is the worst among European and Central Asian countries, according to a 2023 report from the United Nations. And in the mid-2000s, it twice placed last in the PISA test, a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) tracking educational attainment around the world. The government has extended compulsory schooling from 11 to 12 years, is building new schools, increasing teachers' salaries and acquiring modern textbooks from Russia.

Around 22 per cent of the state's budget is allocated to education. Inside the outdated classrooms, the scale of the task is clear. "I teach history. The subject should come alive, with maps and archival images. I want to help children discover the world," said Gulmira Umetalieva, who works at a school in the eastern city of Karakol.

"But there is nothing in the classroom. No computer, no projector, not even a simple screen. The classrooms are run-down, the desks are wobbly, the chairs squeak," she said.

According to government statistics, 113 of around 2,400 schools are in a critical condition. Some 400 new buildings have been constructed between 2021 and 2025.

President Japarov announced a doubling of the average teacher's salary to 250 euros a month from April. But people are hardly lining up to join the profession. "When a teacher is wondering how to survive and cover their basic needs, it's hard to talk about a noble mission," said Umetalieva, who was eagerly awaiting the salary increase hitting her bank account.

Strapped for cash, the authorities have also turned to international and private support, such as the "Teach for All" programme, which sends university graduates into rural schools for two years.

In the northwestern village of Bukara, school principal Nassikhat Sarieva turned to the programme to "address the severe shortage of teachers". "We have taken on two new teachers — one in English, one in Russian," she said.

She is pleased. They "use modern teaching methods", are interactive and engage with students — a welcome change from rigid Soviet traditions. The initiative also sends cultural professionals into schools to try to inspire students to dream of different careers. After taking part in an opera workshop in her school at the foot of the Ala-Too mountain range, 14-year-old Arouke Shaimaratova was impressed. "It made me want to become a singer."

Agence France-Presse