TURKMENISTAN: PLANS FOR EDUCATION REFORM SEEK TO END

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000704

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV EAID SCUL KPAO TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: PLANS FOR EDUCATION REFORM SEEK TO END
NIYAZOV'S LEGACY


1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: If all goes according to plan, the 2008 school
year should look a lot different than the start of the 2007 school
year. Former President Niyazov's "book of the soul," the "Ruhnama,"
will no longer be taught in schools. Class sizes will be much
smaller, teachers should have smaller work loads, and plans are for
the Internet to be connected in 40-50 new school buildings. Despite
the plans, a serious shortage of teachers continues to limit how
quickly the government can improve the education system. In the
meantime, parent's discontent with Turkmenistan's education system
has given impetus to the development of parallel, for-pay
educational structures. END SUMMARY.

BYE-BYE RUHNAMA


3. (SBU) Teachers and students have told Embassy personnel that
former President Niyazov's Ruhnama or "book of the soul," will be
removed from the curricula of schools and universities beginning
with the new academic year in 2008. Knowledge of the Ruhnama and of
Niyazov and his family will no longer be a primary theme for the
secondary school graduation exam. Several teachers told us that
they instruct their secondary school students that the name of the
former president is not to be mentioned in essays. Classrooms have
already started dismantling their "Ruhnama Corners," removing the
books and taking down posters. Niyazov's portraits and Ruhnama
posters have already been removed from the lobby of the Ministry of
Education. The Ruhnama has also been gradually phased-out of other
sectors of society. Since 2007, government sector employees such as
doctors and policemen are no longer attending Saturday Ruhnama
seminars. The Ministry of Education confirmed that it is still
revising history textbooks and other social science books, removing
Ruhnama and Niyazov citations and quotes.

MORE SCHOOL REFORMS


4. (SBU) The Ministry of Education will also introduce classroom
reforms affecting teachers and students. Class sizes will come down
from 40-plus students per class to 24 pupils per class in primary
school and 30 pupils per class for other grades. Staff hours, the
number of hours required to teach full time per week, was lowered
from 36 hours to 24. With a smaller workload and smaller class
size, the government has announced plans to open 40-50 new schools
by September 2008 and has allocated $500 million to build and equip
them with smart boards, computers, and Internet access. (NOTE:
EmbOff has seen only one of these new schools built and equipped,
but an Internet connection could not be verified. Our assessment is
that the plans to put Internet in 40-50 schools within a few months
may be too ambitious. END NOTE.) Teachers have been telling
students that pupils entering the 4th grade in fall 2008 will
graduate after 11 years of schooling.

WHERE ARE THE TEACHERS?


5. (SBU) The Ministry has yet to recruit or hire teachers for all
the new schools expected to come online in September 2008 and in
many respects, it is still grappling with severe shortages of
teachers for the current number of schools. In 2001, 15,000
teachers were laid off when, under Niyazov's instructions, the
Ministry of Education reduced the number of years of education from
10 to 9 and increased the number of staff hours from 18 to 36. This
has resulted in students being taught by unqualified teachers: some
German and Russian teachers have been tasked with teaching English,
while math teachers in many schools were tasked with teaching
biology. In the provinces, often a single secondary school teacher
will teach multiple subjects, such as math, science, and language.


PRIVATE-SECTOR EDUCATION


6. (SBU) As a response to Niyazov's drastic changes in
Turkmenistan's education system, a parallel education system has

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emerged in the private sector. Organizations such as the
Turkmen-run "Sultan Dag" school and the Turkish-run "Bashkent
School" that offer tuition-based vocational courses in accounting,
computers, and foreign languages, are hugely popular and expanding.
The Turkish-run "Turkmen-Turkish" schools offer primary and
secondary education at international standards for 250,000 manat per
month (approximately $24). Competition for admission is stiff, with
nearly ten pupils applying per available seat. Many parents pay for
private tutors to supplement their child's education in subjects
such as math, biology, and Russian. The Ministry has taken notice,
and the director of the Institute for Strategic Planning has
confirmed that private education and tuition-based education in
universities has been included in Turkmenistan's strategic education
development plan through 2020.


7. (SBU) COMMENT: It is a good sign that President Berdimuhamedov
appears to be confident enough to embark on a course to eliminate
the impact of his predecessor's harmful policies on Turkmenistan's
education system. The end of Ruhnama classes is an important step
forward. However, overcoming the enormous challenges left by
Niyazov's legacy -- especially the teacher deficit -- will take
considerable time. Although the introduction and growth of
private-sector programs may be less than ideal from the perspective
of control-oriented Ministry officials, this perhaps offers the best
assurance that needed reforms will be made sooner, rather than
later. END COMMENT.

CURRAN