KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

Affairs of KR and the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan, together with
the representatives of Islamic educational institutions, should arrive at a consensual
approach to formulating curricula. Each of these groups must make concessions.
It is well-known that a curriculum includes four or five cycles. These are HSE (the
humanities, social sciences and economics), MNS (mathematics and natural sciences),
GS (general subjects) and SS (specialization subjects). Those subjects should be taught
in all universities of the country. The Ministry of Education provides education in HSE
and MNS; the courses within these cycles take 45 percent of the total number of hours.
The heads of religious schools do not want the HSE and MNS course to be taught in
their schools. Obviously, the Ministry of Education and Science could have taken into
account the specificity of religious education, and reduced the requirement of teaching
the courses of HSE and MNS, lowering their proportion of the educational process from
45 percent to 20 percent, and including only the most popular courses. In addition,
Islamic educational institutions should be granted appropriate licenses to implement
the educational process. The experience of the Russian Federation should be considered,
since this problem has been solved at the Russian Islamic University in the city of
Kazan. This University received a license from the Ministry of Education which enables
it to train students who, after graduation, receive a Certificate of Education issued in
accordance with state standards. The Tajik Republic also solved this problem in 2007 at
the Tirmizi Islamic University in Dushanbe.
If the problems of Islamic education are to be solved, it is necessary to ensure
support from the state budget. Aware of the importance of this problem, many countries,
including secular Germany, began to allocate funds from their state budgets to provide
religious education. In the U.S.A., thanks to the initiative of President Bush, a federal
law that finances religious schools through state budgets was enacted, although the law
has not been accepted in all states.
The researcher T. Papuashvili reported the views of Canadian experts, who believe
that religious schools should be financed from the state budget but under no circumstances
receive funding from private foundations, which may lead to serious problems in the
future [3, p. 35]. Prominent Tajik theologian and politician H. A. Turajonzoda concurred,
arguing that the state should support religious schools and thereby benefit both the
state and society.
Solving the problems of Islamic education in Kyrgyzstan is clearly not the task of
theologians alone, but also of the state as a whole.
References
1. Koliha E. Islamskoe obrazovanie v Kyrgyzstane: voprosy struktury i podhodov religii [Islamic
education in Kyrgyzstan: the structure and approaches to religion]//Islam in Central Asia:
Collection of the conference materials. 21-22-May 2004. Special Issue of “Vestnik OshGU”.
Osh, 2004.
2. Neizbejen li radicalnyi Islam v centralnoi azii? Prioritety deistvia [Is radical Islam inevitable
in Central Asia? Priorities for action]: IPCC report on Asia № 72, Osh-Brussels, 22 Dec, 2003
3. Papuashvili T. K voprosu ob osnovah radicalnogo extremizma [To the problem of religious
extremism]//Central Asia and the Caucasus. – 2000. – № 5 (11).
4. Tabyshalieva A. Vera v Turkestane [Faith in Turkestan]. – Bishkek, 1993.
5. Timurov T. Kyrgyz bolgonuma syymyktanam [I am proud to be Kyrgyz]//Slovo Kyrgyzstana. –
№ 28. – 2004. – April 15.
132