TAJIKISTAN - WHY AMERICAN CORNERS MATTER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000634 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR IIP/NEA-SCA MBRYANT ALSO FOR SCA/PPD JKAMP, ECA/A/S/A ECLEMENT, AND SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL ECON KPAO TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN - WHY AMERICAN CORNERS MATTER ¶1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified - Not for Internet Distribution. ¶2. (SBU) Summary. Despite widespread academic corruption and crumbling infrastructure, Tajik students and instructors are striving to achieve, as Public Affairs Officer and visiting Information Resources Officer learned during a trip to Qurghon-Teppa and Khorog April 23-25 to scout locations for new American Corners. The Corners would build on local initiative and provide much needed English language activities and educational advising to facilitate connections between Tajiks and Americans. Academics and NGO leaders enthusiastically welcomed the proposed addition to local resources. Local officials in Khorog lauded "good intentions," but made it plain that any American Corner would need their consent. The new Corners will considerably widen the horizon of exchanges and opportunities for Tajikistan's deserving and hard working academics. End summary. ¶3. (SBU) Tajikistan is facing a crisis in education as the population continues to rise and the government expends few resources to renovate Soviet era educational infrastructure. Academic corruption here undermines incentive for professors or students to achieve. University administrators dismiss students from classes in the fall to pick cotton for a couple dollars a day, an illegal but tacitly accepted practice. Teachers are underpaid and accept bribes from students who pay to stay out of the cotton fields or to obtain good grades. Nevertheless, those willing to work hard to advance honestly are striving to learn English to qualify for admission to universities abroad. By providing an English language platform and educational advising, our Corners fill a gap left by inadequate local facilities and thus stand as an alternative to corruption. To meet the demand for these services, Dushanbe's Public Affairs Officer and SCA's visiting Information Resource Officer traveled to Qurghon-Teppa and Khorog April 23-25 to scout locations for two new Corners. ¶4. (SBU) In Khorog, a beautiful but isolated city of 28,000 on the Afghan border which serves as the capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, we found strong traditions of education and self-reliance, confirming the city would be an ideal location for a new American Corner. Moreover, the study of English is widespread, due to the excellent education offered by the University of Central Asia (UCA) and the Aga Khan Lycee, where English is a primary language of instruction. The Community Education Center, a non-governmental organization which supports itself by offering low-fee English language and computer training, would be a natural partner. ¶5. (SBU) We met a Khorog State University professor who participated in a Junior Faculty Development program in Kentucky last year. This summer, in a program funded by the University of Kentucky, she will return with two of her fellow professors to write a grammar and lexicon of the Pamiri language, Shugni. While this success story started with a USG exchange, an American Corner with educational advising could connect more Tajik academics to American colleagues, beyond the limited number of official USG exchanges. ¶6. (SBU) The prospect of a growing "American" presence in Khorog provoked a Soviet like reflex from the regional authorities. After our enthusiastic reception at the Aga Khan funded University of Qour enthusiastic reception at the Aga Khan funded University of Central Asia, the hukumat (i.e., regional government offices) summoned us to a meeting to remind us of who was in charge. The governor/mayor and the vice rector of the government run Khorog State University said an American Corner to support education was "a good intention," but would go nowhere without their explicit consent. They reminded us again the next day during the Information Resources Officer's informal briefing on United States government with a couple dozen Khorog State English students. Members of the local State Committee for National Security (successor to the KGB, but still known by that acronym) called the Public Affairs Section assistant and threatened to (but did not) interrupt the talk because we did not request permission in advance. ¶7. (SBU) Qurghon-Teppa is likewise an excellent host city for a Corner, being Tajikistan's third largest city with a population of about 80,000, home of Qurghon-Teppa State University, and only a hour's drive from Dushanbe in all four seasons. A committee of seven faculty and administrators from the university met us in a show of strong approval. However, some of the good will had strings attached. The rector tried to sell us an "American Center" that would fit perfectly in his daughter's three-story house. When we explained the difference between a "corner" and a "center," he said the university had no space. A professor who was afraid we would be dissuaded by this gambit took us aside and told us to ignore the rector, and said the university had plenty of space. DUSHANBE 00000634 002 OF 002 ¶8. (SBU) A more likely partner would be the non-governmental organization SWORDE-Teppa (Sustainable World Development within the Environment),which offers free English courses to the community, educational activities for youth, and public health programs to eradicate malaria. In 2007 SWORDE-Teppe signed a three-year rent-free lease agreement with the local authorities for a spacious two-story kindergarten which the NGO renovated with $75,000 in British government funding. When asked whether the Government of Tajikistan was likely to reclaim the property at the end of the three-year term, the director considered that unlikely because the organization was well established as a community center for Tajik citizens, particularly youth. ¶9. (U) To improve the management of existing and future Corners, the Public Affairs Section will introduce a strategic shift in the Corners' mission. We will hire coordinators who answer to us instead of local university administrators, who do not always share our vision. In response to the great demand from patrons, we will also add educational advising services and greatly expand the contacts among the Tajik and American academic communities. Last year our existing Corners logged an impressive 18,000 visitors. When Khorog and Qurghon-Teppa come on board and the administrative changes are in place, we will have considerably widened the horizon of exchanges and opportunities for Tajikistan's deserving and hard working academics. JACOBSON