New programme to get teachers to rural areas

Mairam Kurmanalieva, 21, is a final-year university student in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. The industrious teacher-to-be, originally from the eastern Issyk-Kul province, studies biology at the Kyrgyz National State University (KNSU) and is expected to graduate this summer, but she is not optimistic about returning to her native Tamchi village on the northern shore of lake Issy-Kul and teaching children there. "After getting my diploma, I have to go back to my village and teach children there. But I don't want to leave Bishkek. I am planning to stay here and find a job in the capital," Mairam told IRIN. Such sentiments are not unusual among students and graduates of education faculties in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country with a population of 5.5 million, of which some 65 percent live in rural areas. Officials say that the education situation in many rural areas remains a source of concern. "Although school students in rural areas lag behind their urban contemporaries in terms of knowledge, the gap is not alarmingly great as some experienced teachers of retirement age are still working in rural schools. But if they leave and no one comes to replace them, the problem will become very critical," Gulzamira Mambetalieva, a professor of English at the KNSU, told IRIN. Every year 25,000 students graduate from Kyrgyzstan's pedagogical institutions, while rural schools currently lack over 3,000 teachers, Salmor Asanov, the chief of the economics department of the Ministry of Education (MoE), told IRIN. Low salaries and poor living conditions are the major reasons new teachers cite for not wanting to work in rural schools. A newly graduated teacher's monthly salary is not more than US $25, while an experienced teacher will only earn around $50, according to government statistics. University graduates who came from rural areas are also unwilling to go back to their villages to be faced the problems of inadequate housing and lack of basic amenities. "I have lived in a city for the past five years and I was in a way 'spoilt' by it. I do not see any point in going back for a small salary. Life is better in the city," Kubanych, another university graduate, told IRIN. "Graduates, originally from urban areas, will never go to rural areas to work. The only group of young teachers who can go there are those who are originally from rural areas as they have their extended families there. But even in that case, you need to provide strong incentives and support, for example a good salary or other benefits, so that they will be happy to work there," he said. However, there are already signs of change and the new Rural Education Project established by the Kyrgyz education ministry, with support from the World Bank, is set to tackle the issue. "Through the project, we want to provide not only new textbooks and manuals for primary and secondary schools all over the country, but introduce a Young Teacher Deposit National Programme as well," Mustafa Kidibaev, former education minister, told IRIN. According to the education ministry, the young teacher deposit project will financially assist 200 new rural teachers over three academic years in two pilot provinces - Issyk-Kul and northwestern Talas - beginning in September 2005. "We have opened a deposit account at the savings bank and some $48 will be transferred to each teacher's account every month. But new teachers can receive the whole amount, which will make roughly $1,750, only after three years of work at a rural school," Asanov explained. "This project will help to resolve many problems at rural schools," Askar Kakeev, president of the KNSU, told IRIN. "Many students from our university are now interested in it and want to go to remote areas to teach on the condition that they can receive assistance from the scheme," Kakeev added. "Yes, I have heard about such a project and I will go to work in any province, no matter how far from a city, with great pleasure," Almagul Kocherbaeva, a fourth-year student at the Kyrgyz Pedagogical University, told IRIN. "Certainly, money plays a key role here. During these years I can really save a considerable amount of money. I am from a large family and it is good that I will be independent and at the same time I will be able to help my parents and younger brother and sister," she said. There are other advantages too, to being deployed to a rural school. "In the city, I do not have a place to live and I spend all my money for rent, while everything is much cheaper in the country," another trainee teacher added. But some remained unconvinced. "I will not go to a village to work at school. First, I see no prospects for me there. I am sure that only in the capital I can become a good specialist. But many of my fellow students having learned about this project want to join it," Mairam told IRIN. Meanwhile, negotiations were under way with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to extend the coverage area of the project to the whole country in an effort to boost education in a country that remains predominantly rural.