Pakistan can learn from Tajikistan in terms of what the later did to rebuild its educational infrastructure in the aftermath of the civil war. As we (Nadir and Sultana) visited places, met people and travelled inside the country on an exposure visit by the Rural support Programmes Network , the Tajikistan’s story is worth telling due to the resilience and commitment of this nation with a high literacy ratio of 99%.
After its independence in 1991, the educational system of Tajikistan suffered due to civil war in the country that caused the destruction of 20% of schools. Consequently, children from a poor financial background of households left schools, and many teachers discontinued teaching and instead engaged in earning activities due to financial hardships.However, the Tajik people were determined not to lose on educational front.
Tajikistan welcomes the people hailing from different countries of the globe with open arms. The country motivates the people with its beauty to discover more fascinating points, especially in the largest city, Dushanbe, which is the economic, political and cultural heart of the country. Further, it makes the foreigners feel good toobserve the peaceful environment, street lamps lighting the roads with different colours and the absolute immaculate places.While, the elders appear goingto their offices, markets and work places to perform their daily activities; boys and girls flood the roads to attend schools, colleges and universities. Not only the natural beauty of the country inspires thepeople but also the high literacy ratio of the country. Tajikistan became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and faced a civil war from 1992 to 1997.
If you look at the brief overview of the history of the educational system of Tajikistan you will find out that during the period of transition, educational standard began to decline because Tajik youth had to choose between education or work due to lack of affordability. It was this main challenge for young people to secure their future in the field of education. The transitional period after the civil war changed the form of free education due to high inflation and poverty. The establishment of a huge number of self-financed educational institutions surged. School fees became the determinant for education thus forcing the children of poor families out of school.
Despiteof all challenges and hard time, Tajik government put education as its first priority to improve it. Consequently, the number of schools were increased to 3747 in 2010 by constructing new schools and repairing the existing schools for imparting education. Therefore, the government of Tajikistan put all efforts into account and introduced new teaching methods with the opening of new schools to attract a good number of students for increasing the enrolment. In this regard, it achieved a lot in the sphere of education and increased the financial budget for secondary educational institutions which was around 27.6 million somoni in 2000 and this funding summed to 707.3 million somoni in 2010.
Despite of all challenges and hard time, Tajik government put education as its first priority to improve it. Consequently, the number of schools were increased to 3747 in 2010 by constructing new schools and repairing the existing schools for imparting education
To meet the gap is services, the country welcomed the assistance from civil society organisations such as The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) to help her build better opportunities for its people. AKES stepped in Tajikistan in 1995 to address educational needs such as the professional trainings of teachers for capacity building, strengthening existing schools and providing scholarships to meritorious students from poor families. In this regard, Government, Agha Khan Foundation (AKF) Education, Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP) and other NGOs worked well to rehabilitate many schools, to add new classrooms, to re-train teachers, to make Parent Teacher Associations active and to increase teachers’ salaries to achieve the desired results. Consequently, the condition of schools became much better with the provision of good education.
In addition, Agha Khan Foundation has recently initiated a programme, Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast/Region. AKF/MSDSP also formed the Community Institutions (CIs) like Village Organisations (VOs) and Social Union for Development of Village Organisations (SUDVOs) to discuss and to solve socio-economic issues, try to improve access to social services and to play a role to improve the quality of education. During the visit to the NisimGund SUDVO, district Shugnon, the chairman of Jamoat informed that their SUDVO has three committees, i. economic, ii. education and iii. agriculture. He also informed that some of the VOs have also developed the health and education emergency funds and helped in the renovation of the elementary schools. This is one of the key indicators that now more students from Jamoats/UCs attend universities at Khorog and other cities of Tajikistan.
One member of VO Porshinev, district Shugnon said, “Since I have become engaged in fruit processing activity supported by AKF, I can properly afford the education of my children.”
Despite all the efforts and improvement but still there is an issue of quality education and low wages of teachers. Teachers’ salary is not up to the mark, so they struggle to have teaching as a profession of choice. Now Primary and basic general education in Tajikistan is compulsory, which indicates four years (1-4 class) primary and five years (5-9 class) of lower secondary or basic general education. The compulsory education is ensured by the article 41 constitution of Tajikistan. As per the article8, the parents have a responsibilitynot to prohibit pre-school children and the children who study at secondary, primary and secondary professional education institutions.
Dr Abdur Rehman Cheema is Team Leader Research at Rural Support Programmes Network. He can be reached at [email protected].
Sultana Ali is a sociologist and working as Field Researcher at Rural Support Programmes Network. She can be reached [email protected]
Nadir Ali Shah is Anthropologist and working as Field Researcher at Rural Support Programmes Network. He can be reached at [email protected]