Turkmenistan: Testing Time for Teachers

The Turkmen president has taken another swipe at the country’s hard-pressed education sector by setting tough new teaching grades to make it harder for teachers to qualify for higher salaries.



Those who fall short of the requirements for the lowest grade retain their jobs, but are likely to be the first to go should the authorities choose to slash teaching numbers in future, analysts believe.



The latest cost-cutting exercise by President Saparmurat Niazov, better known as Turkmenbashi, which comes on the eve of the new school year, has deepened the gloomy mood of a profession that has the experienced numerous blows over the last ten years.



The introduction of new pay grades appears to have been prompted by Niazov’s conviction, expressed in a July cabinet meeting, that teachers “were eating up” most of the government’s budget.



The president’s assessment is hard to fathom as the education budget has been shrinking for over a decade. As a result, schooling has been cut from ten to nine years; the number of schools using Russian, Uzbek and Kazak minority languages has been reduced; and the number of subjects taught has been slashed.



According to the new teaching requirements, which come into force this month, teachers will have to have taught pupils who’ve won school prizes to qualify for the lowest pay grade; and they will require a PhD and to have published academic papers and manuals to achieve the highest one.



But, most controversially, to be considered at all for the new pay awards, a teacher will have to have published a number of articles in Turkmen newspapers, praising Turkmenbashi and his policies.



Ashgabat Mathematics teacher Gozel Mamedova told IWPR that there was panic amongst his colleagues as it was nearly impossible to prepare articles and get them published in time for the new grading process, especially since there are only two daily newspapers in the whole country.



A journalist in Ashgabat told IWPR how at the end of July and the beginning of August, newspaper offices were besieged by teachers.



“They brought enormous articles. But we had to turn them into two paragraphs, because they contained nothing but praise for Turkmenbashi.



“And they asked for written confirmation that the material would be published. The teachers were ready to pay simply to be published.”



The slew of articles written by teachers left many readers bewildered. “I don’t understand what is going on,” said Ashgabat pensioner Roza Narzullaeva.



Not only have teachers been compelled to draft fawning articles about the president, but as part of the new pay award scheme they also have to take an examination that tests both their knowledge of the president’s philosophical works and the country as a whole. Sayara Zaitova, a junior school teacher in Ashgabat, said she failed because she didn’t know how much gas was produced in Turkmenistan annually.



With the new school year fast approaching, teachers have been anxious to be assessed as quickly as possible - with unscrupulous education officials and newspaper staff demanding bribes to speed up the process.



Raisa Odekova, a resident of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnvodsk), in the western Balkan region, fell victim to corrupt staff at the local education authority.



“I have taught biology for a long time and according to all the criteria I should qualify for the highest teaching grade,” said Odekova.



“But at the city education board I was given a frosty reception, and they listed all these documents I would need to be considered. It took a whole month to gather them all together.”



However, Odekova said she soon found out that it wasn’t the documents they were after, “They immediately told me that if I wanted the top teaching grade I would have to hand over 200 US dollars. I got angry, expressed my indignation and left.”



There have also been reports of editors taking advantage of teachers desperation to be published. Enegul Gubavea, from a village school close to the capital, told IWPR, “ I went along to a newspaper [to present my article], but they said there was no space. Then I offered to pay and they agreed.”



The new grading process appears designed to make it harder for teachers to get pay rises. For instance, in Mary province in the south of the country, out of one hundred people who applied for the top pay category only eight achieved the required standard.



The new procedure seems to have further demoralised the long-suffering teaching profession. A junior school teacher from Turkmenabat summed up the mood amongst colleagues, “ We work long hours. After lessons there are always some events, marches, when we have to stand in line along the road for various high-ranking officials. In return, they not only make it hard for us to get certain grades, we don’t even get a full salary - almost all teacher are on half pay.”



The names of those featured in this article have been changed out of concerns for their security.