Kyrgyzstan

The Republic of Kyrgyzstan is a small, mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia approximately the size of the U.S. state of South Dakota and with a population in 1999 of 4.8 million inhabitants. Bordered by China in the east, Kazakhstan in the north, Uzbekistan in the west, and Tajikistan in the south, it was one of the smaller, more obscure constituent republics of the former Soviet Union when it declared its independence on 1 January 1991.

Kyrgyzstan gets its name from its largest ethnic group, the Kyrgyz. Originally a group of nomadic peoples from the southern Siberian steppes, they migrated south between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries into modern day Kyrgyzstan. As a nomadic people, the Kyrgyz did not possess a written language until it was transcribed around 1862, using the Cyrillic alphabet. This period also saw the beginning of Russian colonization of Kyrgyzstan, a migration that today has resulted in a significant number of ethnic Russians living in Kyrgyzstan. When the Kyrgyz arrived in present day Kyrgyzstan, they encountered a sedentary people in the flatter more southerly areas, the Uzbeks. Thus today the country is made up of 65 percent Kyrgyz, 12 percent Russian, and 13 percent Uzbeks with a very small number (less than 1 percent) of Tadjiks, Ukrainians, Koreans, and Jewish ethnic minorities. This breakdown, however, conceals regional differences whereby Russians are concentrated in the major cities, Uzbeks constitute a majority in the south, and ethnic Kyrgyz are predominant in the more mountainous and rural areas.

Russian presence and influence in Kyrgyzstan was particularly significant following the Russian revolution of 1917-1918. At this time central Russian control was exercised by the placement of Russians in positions of authority. Moreover, the educational system for the 70 years of Soviet control was based exclusively on the Russian/Soviet model of Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, a system that today is generally being replaced by a more western capitalist model and curriculum. Therefore, understanding the Kyrgyz educational system invariably involves an understanding of the Soviet system that it replaced and the changes in the external and internal educational environments that have occurred since 1990. In addition to this environment is the emergence in certain parts of the country, particularly the south, of an Islamic system of schooling. This reflects both that the Kyrgyz and southern Uzbeks and Tadjiks are followers of Islam and that religion is a force in the cultural base. Thus there is a rise in Islam as a force in education in the country.

The period of Soviet control was particularly marked in Kyrgyzstan by a rise in literacy. In 1926, at the time of the first Soviet census, there were 65,636 males in the Kyrgyz Socialist Soviet Republic, and 30,846 were literate; there were 63,430 females, and 13,936 were literate. In the census of 1989, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, only 3 percent of the population (males 1.4 percent and females 4.5 percent) was considered illiterate.

With limited natural resources, a lack of internationally competitive industries, and a landlocked status, Kyrgyzstan has had some difficulty adjusting to a privatized, market economy. It is generally agreed that the process of economic and political transition has been one of the more successful of the former Soviet Republics, but not without significant economic hardship to the people. This hardship has dramatically affected the educational system.

In the years since independence, the other major issue within the new nation that has affected the educational system has been the search for and establishment of a Kyrgyz national identity, along with its resultant impact on the Russian, Uzbek, and other minorities. As a result of measures to establish a Kyrgyz identity, many Russians have emigrated from Kyrgyzstan while those who remain have perceived an erosion of their cultural identity as a result of preferential treatment for Kyrgyz cultural elements. This is important, as Russians formerly held the most important positions in technology, trade, and education. The loss of some 300,000 highly educated Russians in the last 10 years has significantly affected the administrative and educational functions in the country. In an attempt to offset these perceptions, the government has made Russian an official language along with Kyrgyz, established a Slavic university, and appointed prominent ethnic Russians to key government positions. Perhaps more problematic has been the resolution of the issue of Islamic fundamentalism. While Kyrgyzstan is an avowed secular state with Islam the predominant religion, its government has been required to address the incursion of Islamic separatist armed rebels into southern parts of the country, which in turn has diverted public funds to the military that might have gone toward education.