President pushes ahead with education and agricultural reform

Turkmenistan’s president has announced a salary hike for teachers as he pushes ahead with an overhaul of a deteriorated education system and announced plans to reform the country’s ailing agricultural sector.

Introducing a 40 percent pay rise for teachers and 40 percent increase in scholarships for students, effective from 1 September, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov said better pay would allow teaching staff to concentrate on their core work. Until now, low wages in Turkmen schools and universities have forced many teachers to find ways to supplement their incomes.

Dr Dennis Soltys, a lecturer in Comparative Education at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research, said on Wednesday that Turkmenistan’s new leadership was aware of the need to reform the country’s appalling education system.

“[President Berdymukhammedov] might be sophisticated and pragmatic enough to know that if you want a modern functioning economy you do need a modern education system,” Soltys told IRIN in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty. “There might be modernising economic interests in Turkmenistan.”

At a meeting on 30 March of the People’s Council, Turkmenistan’s top legislative body, Berdymukhammedov said his priority was to improve the lives of ordinary Turkmen.

“If we can ensure people a worthy life, raise their wellbeing, this will be a good engine for reform in all directions,” he told more than 2,500 assembled delegates gathered in the southern city of Mary.

The salary rise comes on top of education reforms announced earlier in March, including a reduced workload for teachers, school class sizes capped at 25, schooling expanded from eight years to 10, and the abolition of a work experience requirement that had restricted access to higher education.

If we can ensure people a worthy life, raise their wellbeing, this will be a good engine for reform in all directions.

Under former Turkmen President Saparmyrat Niyazov’s regime, in order to be accepted for a university programme, secondary school graduates had to have at least two years work experience in the field they were planning to study - a requirement difficult to fulfil given the lack of employment opportunities in Central Asia’s most reclusive state.

Niyazov, known as Turkmenbashy, fostered a cult of personality that extended to education, with teaching centred round his quasi-spiritual guide, the Rukhnama. This bred a generation of students ill-equipped to function in a modern economy. The realisation that this policy could be damaging to the economy may be behind education reforms, Soltys said.

Agricultural reform

Agriculture topped the People’s Council agenda, with Berdymukhammedov calling for bottom-up reform. Outdated agricultural methods are putting the brakes on development, he said.

Three new laws aimed at stimulating agriculture were passed at the session, while Berdymukhammedov ordered local authorities to draw up a strategy to reform rural life, including the construction of social facilities in remote areas.

Central Bank chief Geldimyrat Abilov pledged to raise the prices at which wheat and cotton are purchased from farmers to an unspecified level, expand agricultural loan opportunities and ensure that farmers receive payments on time. Payments are often delayed by the state, creating cash flow problems for farmers.

Amid scepticism among observers, Turkmenistan has claimed bumper grain harvests since 2003. However, in November 2006, Niyazov accused officials of falsifying figures after failing to meet targets. Bread shortages were reported in late 2006.

With agriculture accounting for 26 percent of GDP and a source of livelihood for 54 percent of Turkmen, according to World Bank figures, the sector is a key to the success of Turkmenistan’s economy, and to Berdymukhammedov’s pledge to raise living standards for ordinary people.

jl/at/ed

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