Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

all four countries since the 1990s to varying degrees. Poverty among teachers
is prevalent throughout the region; for example, as of 2009 many teachers in
Kyrgyzstan were living below the official poverty line (Silova, 2009b). Meanwhile,
the education ministry and regional authorities typically fund only teachers’
salaries, often leaving local schools to fend for themselves in terms of acquiring
materials and maintaining basic infrastructure (Mertaugh, 2004).
Mongolia and Kazakhstan also exhibit long-standing issues with the qualification
level, motivation and compensation of their teaching force, excessive teacher
workloads, inadequate infrastructure (with some schools hosting two or even
three shifts a day), lack of resources and insufficient provision of teacher training.
Teachers’ base salary is often insufficient to meet basic living expenses, let alone
financially support a household. As a result, teachers across the region have
developed various compensation strategies such as teaching additional hours,
collecting fees from parents at school and taking on additional work outside of
school (UNICEF, 2011).
Regimenting the Mind
Aside from a serious lack of teacher capacity in general, one reason why many
teachers resist adopting new student-centred approaches to teaching is a
reluctance to compromise their privileged position in the classroom (de la
Sablonnière, Taylor and Sadykova, 2009). Ordinary teachers have, at best, limited
opportunities to initiate change or to raise questions in order to discuss major
issues. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, both teachers and children profess respect
for the authority of leaders and regard it as inappropriate to question them
(Yakavets, 2016, p. 695). Especially in more rural schools, teachers expressed
fears that independent thought and action in the classroom and in school were
inappropriate (DeYoung, 2007, p. 251).
Whereas authoritarian pedagogical styles are far from uncommon in other
Asia regions, the extent to which schools function as sites of ideological
control across much of Central Asia is striking. For example, in Kazakhstan, the
president’s speeches — enshrined in laws, government policies and initiatives
— are cited in every school’s development plan (Yakavets, 2016). In Uzbekistan,
books by President Karimov have been included in the secondary curriculum for
memorisation and recitation in university entrance examinations (Ashrafi, 2008).
In 2015, the government of Uzbekistan banned the teaching of political science
(Kutcher, 2015), reflecting official sensitivity over forms of education seen as
liable to foster critical awareness of political issues amongst Uzbek youth. In
Central Asian countries under highly centralised political regimes, Silova (2009b)
argues, ‘many parents have actively sought private tutoring for their children
to compensate for the strictly imposed ideological indoctrination that has
dominated school curricula and left students without the basic knowledge and
skills necessary to survive in the post-Soviet context’ (p. 59).
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Chapter 6: Central Asia and Mongolia