Educational Diversity in Inner Asia

Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia

Under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the educational system was centrally planned and financed and was made consistent with the nation's economic needs. Educational access and literacy were nearly universal—even in the five Central Asian nations—despite their comparative isolation and poverty. However, much of the educational policy in Central Asia was specifically aimed to build a unified and modern socialist nation, especially in ways that would suppress a potential pan-Islamic identity among the large Muslim population of the region. The curriculum was specifically secular, and literacy campaigns launched in the 1930s modified the scripts of the titular languages from Arabic to Latin. Titular languages were later changed to Cyrillic script in order to facilitate Russian-language learning. Russian was promoted as a lingua franca to unite the multiethnic nation and became mandatory in all schools in 1938. Despite this, according to 1989 census data—produced only 2 years before the Soviet Union's collapse—only 37% of the population in Kyrgyzstan, 30% in Tajikistan, 28% in Turkmenistan, and 22% of the population in Uzbekistan claimed fluency in Russian. Only Kazakhstan, which in fact had a larger Russian than Kazakh population in urban areas, claimed a majority population fluent in Russian.

Upon the demise of the Soviet Union, the five Soviet Central Asian republics faced an enormous challenge. Although the five countries shared linguistic, historical, and cultural ties, none had ever existed as an independent state. In addition, migration during the Soviet years, some of which was forced for political reasons, resulted in ethnically very diverse societies. For example, just over half (only 53%) of the ethnic composition of Kyrgyzstan is in fact Kyrgyz, with the remaining 47% comprised of various other ethnic groups. Similarly, diverse Kazakhstan claims over 100 different ethnic groups.

The immediate demand for a national identity among these Central Asian republics—coupled with the collapse of public expenditures—created pressure for the education systems. Each new nation's education system now faced the task of developing a common identity for its citizens and maintaining a cohesive society among the various ethnic and religious groups, with fewer resources to invest. Many of the republics immediately began a cultural revival that included adopting national heroes and symbols into the public discourse and schools. In both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the official language was also immediately changed from Russian to the titular language, thus alienating the Russian-speaking population in those nations, many of whom had been born there. Kazakh was reinstated as a national language alongside Russian in Kazakhstan, despite the fact that Kazakhstan's urban areas were populated mostly by non-Kazakh citizens. Tajikistan, which broke into civil war in 1992, faced a particularly complex set of educational issues.

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