school children. With regards to teachers, many children pointed out that they are “strict” and “insult and humiliate me”, which is an even more common response than “classmates and school children bully me”. Bullying is a significant problem in Kyrgyz schools. However, according to this survey, teacher’s attitudes towards children are also a major problem which needs to be addressed. Both teachers and children noted that one of the barriers to school attendance is the lack of documents, which is discussed below.
Corruption Children of migrant families often do not have registration documents and use unofficial payments and connections in order to enrol their children. The continuing education of their children also depends on unofficial payments. If a child’s parent cannot pay the charges, the child may face pressure from the school administration (Open Kyrgyzstan 2011). According to Nazgul Turdubekova from the League of Children’s Rights, “this hinders equal access to education, therefore we must create a special committee to control unofficial payments because some schools charge unbearable amounts of bribes and force children to buy school uniforms, which many parents cannot afford” (Bengard 2011). Unfortunately many parents are reluctant to speak about this problem, since reporting is culturally unacceptable (the soviet legacy). Corruption can also lead to the deterioration of the quality of education when bribes are used to pass exams. In this regard, Almaz Tajybai, a member of the Monitoring Council of the MoES, states,
“In order to raise the quality of education in schools we need to reach out to society and advocate for the importance of education. More and more children are not motivated to study, but rather want to earn money or help their parents. Such children come to school with no educational goals and waste their time. When exams approach, with great pleasure and with the acceptance of teachers they bribe school administrators.” (Tajybai, A. Focus Group Discussion, June 27, 2011).
Lack of schools and facilities There is both a lack of schools, particularly pre-primary schools, as well as a lack of facilities within schools. Poor WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) facilities are a major problem in many schools, particularly in rural areas, and could be an important cause of adolescent girls dropping out of school. A lack of facilities for children with a disability is also a serious concern, as discussed previously in this chapter. The graphs below illustrate trends in the number of public and private schools since 1990. The number of public pre-primary schools declined steeply from 1990 to 1995, from almost 1700 schools to only 456 schools in just five years. The decline continued until 2002 when there were only around 400 schools left. Many pre-school buildings were sold during the privatization period, and in Bishkek kindergartens are so overcrowded that in many cases two children need to share one bed (A. Bengard 2011). Since 2002, the number of pre-primary institutions has been increasing again and by 2010 there were 653 pre-primary schools. There are also underground pre-schools, primary and extracurricular schools, which are not registered to avoid investigations and taxes (Damira Kudaibergenova, personal conversation, June 23, 2011). Although less dramatic, there has also been an overall decline in the number of lower secondary schools - from 187 in 2010 compared to 234 in 1990 and 316 at its peak in 1995. The number of primary schools has been declining since 2005, although there are now slightly more primary schools compared to 1990. The number of upper secondary schools in contrast has increased significantly, from just 1393 in 1990 to 1819 in 2010.
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