Russian Schools Back in Vogue in Kyrgyzstan

Over the years since Kyrgyzstan became an independent state, the focus has been on making Kyrgyz the main language of education.

State schools using Russian as the teaching medium remain, principally for Slavs and others those whose first language it is, but they also attract ethnic Kyrgyz parents who see advantages in sending their children there.

The Russian-language school in the southern town of Batken is over-subscribed, mainly because parents who have joined the mass exodus of labour migrants to Russia want their children to be able to operate there.

The second report in the programme covered the shortage of school textbooks. Schools provide books in return for a rental fee, but there are not enough to go round, and parents have to buy them on the open market, where prices have gone up recently.

 
The audio programme, in Russian and Kyrgyz, went out on national radio stations in Kyrgyzstan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.