Exploration of Quality of Education in Schools of Kyrgyzstan

• In Event: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Educational experiences of post-Soviet students within and outside Eurasia

Proposal

Quality of education has been a contested concept and there is no universally accepted standard definition of education quality, discussing the concept is even more problematic (Barrett et al., 2006, as cited in Tikly, 2011). The two principal approaches that have dominated the current understanding of education quality are based on the human capital theory and the human rights theory (Tikly, 2011; Tikly & Barrett, 2011). The human capital approach concentrates on economic growth, whereas the human rights approach focuses on safeguarding basic rights to education as a potential outcome of quality education (Tikly, 2004; Tikly & Barrett, 2007). Arguably, human rights are an integral part of human development and, therefore, the purpose of education (Unterhalter, 2007). However, both the human capital and human rights approaches have their own limitations. Keeping in view the limitations of the human capital and human rights approaches to education quality, Tikly (2011) and Tikly and Barrett (2011) propose a social justice approach to understanding education quality. A social justice approach to education quality is based on encouraging participation, hearing the voices, and listing the aspirations of all stakeholders in defining what they perceive as good quality education (Tikly, 2011). Fraser (2008) explains three dimensions of education quality from a social justice perspective: (i) redistribution of resources to help everyone have access to equally good quality education; (ii) recognition and respect for the voices and rights of the disadvantaged or marginalized such as women, children, rural settlers, the poor, among others, in the provision and quality of education; (iii) participation of all stakeholders in decision-making at all levels of education governance, leadership, and management. Grounded in the social justice approach, we employed a theoretical framework, primarily drawn from Tikly (2011) and UNESCO (2005), to understand stakeholders’ conceptions of education quality and associated challenges in schools of Kyrgyzstan, especially during the pandemic in 2020-2022.
There is a shortage of research studies that systematically explore the quality issues in schools of Kyrgyzstan from the perspectives of the teachers, school leaders, and other stakeholders working on the ground, especially in the context of the pandemic.
The purpose of this study to is to: a) explore school leaders, teachers, students and parents’ conceptions of quality education- one that represents the vision, voices, priorities and aspirations of the leaders, teachers, students and parents in schools of Kyrgyzstan, b) identify and understand the opportunities, resources and support available to achieve the perceived quality of education in those schools, c) identify the challenges, issues and gaps that hinder the school leaders, teachers and students from achieving the perceived quality of education including the issues with technology during the pandemic and, d) develop recommendations and conceptual framework for enhancing quality of education in their schools.
The research purpose suits a mixed-methods design, specifically, convergent parallel design (Creswell, 2014). We gained access by negotiating with the MOES in January of 2022 and then collected data in three provinces (Chui, Naryn, and Osh) of the country in April-May 2022. Three regions were selected randomly among the seven regions of Kyrgyzstan, and then, 15 secondary schools were randomly selected in total from those regions (5 from each region). Seven of those schools were from urban areas while eight of them were from rural areas.
The paper reports on the qualitative part of the study only. Thus, the research comprised 22 individual interviews with school administrators, as well as representatives from MOES, and regional departments of education. Additionally, 39 focus group discussions were held, involving parents, students, and teachers. Interviews and focus-group discussions would include probing questions and generate information-rich, descriptive data in participants’ own words (Cohen et al., 2007; Creswell, 2014).
The findings from the qualitative data demonstrate that the stakeholders have the following conceptions of quality of education. Most of them connect quality of school education with high scores in the national standardized tests and subject Olympiads at regional and national levels. Entrance to higher education institution is also mentioned as one of the quality indicators.
The participants also mentioned the challenges that inhibit the delivery of quality education, and the following were the key ones: outdated content, lack of connection between knowledge gained at schools and its real-life application, poor quality of textbooks and poor assessment system. Many participants also connected poor quality with the factors related to poor teacher quality, low status, low salary, teacher shortage. The participants observed that the quality of education worsened due to pandemic and online education.
The participants also commented that the school facilities and material basis need to be improved as well as the increase of parental responsibility and involvement in school was recommended. The curriculum also needs to be changed by including life-skills courses and aligning textbooks with the new changes to the curriculum. There is a positive sign of the increasing realization among key stakeholders to improve education quality, with the schools, communities, and government promoting events and activities to improve education quality, and the Ministry of Education’s commitment to support change and research.
Nevertheless, there is a strong indication that quality of education is closely linked to cognitive (academic) domain measured by students’ marks in national level tests and Olympiads only, and very little importance to other domains of a child’s holistic development. As the quality of education is measured mainly through students’ scores in various tests and Olympiads, which mainly encourage rote-memorization, teachers are compelled to teach to the tests by focusing more on learning of subject matter than on any other domains of holistic development.
The study findings demonstrated that there is a need to focus on more holistic skills, but not only cognitive or academic achievements. We recommend promoting positive change initiatives to update curriculum and produce new textbooks aligned with those changes and promote transformative school leadership which can lead the changes.

Authors

• Nargiz Abdyrakhman kyzy, Nazarbaev University

• Aizhan Mukhamejanova, Nazarbayev University

• Duishon Ali Shamatov, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education

• Mir Afzal, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education