Business and education for the future of Central Asia

Public schools at all levels, from kindergartens to universities, are growing in the countries of the region. And in several cases it is the state itself that is stimulating investors with the aim of modernising the education and training system.

Astana (AsiaNews) - High-level education always requires large financial investments, which cannot only be borne by the state budget, but require decisive action on the part of businessmen. In the countries of Central Asia, this approach is still far from being effective and systematic, but in recent times it is becoming more and more incisive, with public schools at all levels, from kindergartens to universities, and in several cases the State itself stimulating investors, starting with childcare and pre-school education.

In Kyrgyzstan, there are more than 200 private educational institutions at all levels, financed in various ways by three sources, state, private and external, supported by many international organisations. The best example is the donor coalition Schools-2030, which finances many projects in the sphere of public education and vocational training.

Uzbekistan has an active policy of state-private partnership in the field of pre-school education, which has enabled the opening of more than 2000 kindergartens throughout the country. The state business support fund provides very substantial aid for these facilities. There are also plans for a general improvement of school education by creating a special office for the modernisation of the education and training system.

Tajikistan has the problem of school overcrowding, especially in rural areas, and a shortage of teaching staff. Due to the lack of buildings, facilities and organisation, pupils and students are often forced to split into two or three shifts during the day.

Here, too, there are plans to give more impetus to private initiative in education, creating positive competition that can improve services in education in general.

Private educational institutions are practically absent in Turkmenistan, even though legislation formally permits their activities. The only public school in the country is the International School of Ašgabat, which functions with the direct support of the US government.

Due to the strict regulations that apply to the Turkmen education system, many children remain deprived of access to pre-school education, and there is a need for very radical reforms in this field.

The education sector in Kazakhstan is highly dependent on the influences of demographics and many other factors, which require the participation of private capital and the solution of many open problems.

Experts claim, however, that the country is moving more and more decisively in the direction of larger investments in education at all levels, up to and including vocational retraining of adults.

Among the public schools in Kazakhstan, there is no shortage of those that perform welfare and charity functions, and take the development of society as a whole to heart, also working as non-profits, in which the school administrations donate all profits to the growth of the educational activities themselves.

A very effective example of this is the practice of the Kazaco-British Technical University, for the development of which 11 billion tenge (approximately 20 million euro) has been invested in recent times. The institute is administered by the Nnef foundation, founded by Dinara Kulibaeva, a businesswoman and daughter of former president Nursultan Nazarbaev, with the help of her husband Timur Kulibaev, also a prominent businessman and president of the National Olympic Committee.

It is one of the few organisations in Kazakhstan, and in the whole of Central Asia, that proposes the concept of lifelong education, Long Life Learning, where education begins at the age of two and continues into old age. The aim of this and similar institutions is to offer Central Asian territories an educational standard at the level of the best countries in the world.