Public Education and Science in Kyrgyzstan

Education. By the time Soviet power was established in Kyrgyzstan, its population was completely illiterate. There were few schools, and literacy in the native language was not developing. There were no national personnel in the education sector.

The Soviet government took all measures to increase the number of schools and educate children of school age. In the 1924-1925 academic year, about 500 schools opened their doors, educating over 32 thousand children. However, there were very few Kyrgyz children among them. Due to the lack of textbooks in their native language, Kyrgyz children studied in Kazakh, Tatar, and Uzbek languages.

Prominent educators I. Arabayev and K. Tynystanov made a particularly significant contribution to the creation of textbooks in the Kyrgyz language. In 1924, the first printed primer in Kyrgyz, “Alippe,” authored by I. Arabayev, was published in Tashkent. That same year, 12 books were published with a circulation of 28 thousand copies, including textbooks by K. Tynystanov on the native language.

There was a shortage of teachers. To prepare them, pedagogical circles and courses were organized. Enthusiast educators opened schools and taught children themselves. Teacher training took place at the Turkestan University (in Tashkent), in Almaty, and in Moscow. However, there were few Kyrgyz students in higher educational institutions.

The first representatives of the national teaching staff included I. Arabayev, K. Tynystanov, M. Baigazakov, A. Isaeva, E. Sutichirov, Z. Kydyrbaev, A. Koigeldiev, and others. Russian educators N. Ivanovsky, A. Lobanov, I. Loktionov, A. Sapozhnikov made a significant contribution to the establishment and development of schooling in Kyrgyzstan.

The truly heroic and simultaneously arduous fate of the first teachers of Kyrgyzstan, who sought to introduce Kyrgyz children to knowledge and dreamed of their bright future, was poignantly described by Ch. Aitmatov in his novella “The First Teacher.”

In 1925, a one-year pedagogical school opened in Osh, and agricultural technical schools were established in Pishpek and Karakol.

That same year, the Institute of Enlightenment began its work in Pishpek. A number of factory and plant schools were opened. In a short time, thousands of representatives of Kyrgyz youth were educated in these institutions.

Illiteracy Eradication. With the increase in the number of teachers and specialists, work began to eradicate the illiteracy of the population. For this purpose, a special commission and a voluntary society called “Down with Illiteracy” were created in Kyrgyzstan. The “Koshchi” union also made a significant contribution to the fight against illiteracy. Special attention was paid to teaching literacy to peasants, livestock breeders, and women. Special schools, so-called red houses, operated. In 1925, 8 thousand people became literate. In 1926, more than half of the population of the USSR was literate, while in Kyrgyzstan, it was 15 percent.

In 1928, the Arabic alphabet previously used by the Kyrgyz population was replaced by a new alphabet based on Latin script. This created additional difficulties in the development of education, especially in the process of eradicating illiteracy. To facilitate the process of literacy acquisition for the population, Kyrgyz linguists X. Karasaev, A. Shabdanov, and S. Naamotov wrote teaching aids using the Latin alphabet.

A real fight against illiteracy unfolded in Kyrgyzstan under the slogan “Literacy! Teach the Illiterate.” In 1930, a special campaign was organized to eradicate illiteracy. That year, over 100 thousand people were educated in literacy schools. The newspaper “Be Literate!” began to be published.

From 1934, the eradication of illiteracy became a priority direction of state policy.

The Kyrgyz government established a special administration for the eradication of illiteracy. The nationwide struggle for literacy bore fruit. According to the 1939 census, more than 80 percent of the republic's residents aged 9 to 49 were literate. This was a significant achievement in the life of the Kyrgyz people.

In the 1930-1931 academic year, universal compulsory primary education was introduced in the republic. The successes of public education grew quantitatively and qualitatively compared to the pre-war period. Alongside primary schools, the number of seven-year and secondary schools increased. The number of teachers also grew. By 1940, Kyrgyzstan had implemented the program of universal compulsory primary education and introduced compulsory seven-year education in rural areas and ten-year education in urban areas.

In 1932, the first higher educational institution in the history of Kyrgyzstan was opened — the Kyrgyz State Pedagogical Institute (now the Kyrgyz State National University). The establishment of the first educational institutions in the republic received significant support from specialists who arrived from Moscow and Leningrad.

Before the war, there were 6 higher and 34 secondary specialized educational institutions in the republic. At the same time, there was a shortage of specialists throughout the education system. Rural schools particularly needed staff. In 1940, a reform of the Kyrgyz script was carried out again — the Russian alphabet was now used instead of the Latin one. Of course, this created new difficulties for educators.

Despite these and other challenges, educational institutions continued to operate during the Great Patriotic War. After the war, new positive shifts occurred in public education, allowing for the transition to universal secondary education between 1960 and 1974.

The system of secondary specialized and higher education further developed. During the Soviet era, there were 10 higher and more than 40 secondary specialized educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan, where thousands of specialists were trained for various sectors of production.

Development of Science. The successes achieved in public education contributed to the broad development of science in Kyrgyzstan. In 1943, a branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was opened in Kyrgyzstan, and in 1954, the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz SSR was established as an independent scientific center. Additionally, dozens of research institutes in various fields of science operated, employing thousands of researchers.

The first candidate's dissertation in Kyrgyzstan was defended in 1942, and the first doctoral dissertation was defended in 1948. By 1990, there were about 600 doctors and around 2 thousand candidates of sciences in Kyrgyzstan, whose research and discoveries contributed to the development of world science.

A significant contribution to the establishment and development of Kyrgyz medical science was made by the renowned surgeon Isy Akhunbaev. He was the first president of the Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan and performed the first heart surgery in Kyrgyzstan in 1959.

One of the most prominent scholars studying the history of the Kyrgyz people was Academician Begimaly Jamgyrchinov. He became the first Kyrgyz doctor of sciences.

The development of the Kyrgyz language is closely linked to the names of renowned scholars B. Yunusaliev and K. Yudakhin. The Kyrgyz-Russian dictionary compiled by K. Yudakhin is still highly regarded by the global scientific community. He prepared many Kyrgyz scholars and specialists in Kyrgyz linguistics.

Academician Musa Adyshev, a great-grandson of the famous Kurmandjan Datka, dedicated his life to the study of Kyrgyzstan's mineral resources. In the last years of his life, the well-known scientist headed the Academy of Sciences of the republic and did much to enhance the authority of Kyrgyz science.