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Turkmenistan
Curriculum
The curriculum followed by schools is standardized, allowing
little variation among the country's school districts. The prescribed
humanities curriculum for the ninth and tenth grades places the
heaviest emphasis on native language and literature, history,
physics, mathematics, Turkmen or Russian language, chemistry,
foreign language, world cultures, and physical education. A few
elective subjects are available.
Although teaching continues to enjoy respect as a vocation,
Turkmenistan's school system suffers from a shortage of qualified
teachers. Many obstacles confront a teacher: heavy teaching loads
and long hours, including Saturdays and double shifts; wholly
inadequate textbooks and instructional materials; serious shortages
of paper, supplies, and equipment; low salaries; and, at times,
even failure to be paid. An estimated 13 percent of schools have
such serious structural defects in their physical plants that
they are too dangerous to use for classes.
Instruction in 77 percent of primary and general schools is
in Turkmen, although the 16 percent of schools that use Russian
as their primary language generally are regarded as providing
a better education. Some schools also instruct in the languages
of the nation's Uzbek and Kazak minorities. Especially since the
adoption of Turkmen as the "state language" and English as the
"second state language," the study of these two languages has
gained importance in the curriculum, and adults feel pressure
to learn Turkmen in special courses offered at schools or at their
workplaces.
Data as of March 1996
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