체제변환기 중앙아시아 국가들의 교육개혁 서양의 영향 아래 도입된 제도 및 프로그램을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of education reforms conducted during transitional period in Central Asian countries. In particular, this study analyzes how educational policies transferred by international agencies and NGOs for the education reforms in Central Asia produced unintended problems in the localization process. For this purpose, documents published by the international agencies as well as academic institutions and scholars were analyzed to evaluate the changes made not only in the systemic level but also institutional and personal levels in these countries. Since the independence from the Soviet Union, countries in Central Asia decentralized their educational administrations, privatized some of their educational institutions, liberalized textbooks and other services, extended years of compulsory education, and introduced new subjects such as English as foreign language and computer-related subjects (e.g. information and technology), in order to make a transition into the globalized market economy. The extensive education reforms were partly driven by the technological and financial aid provided by international agencies and NGOs from mid-1990s. However, since the education reforms were conducted primarily for economic needs, many problems occurred in the adaptation processes, including the decrease of teachers’ salary, lack of teaching and learning resources, increasing inequality between schools in urban and rural areas, increasing corruption. The problems intensified since the legacy from Soviet education, such as top-down, centralized bureaucracy in educational administration and rigid planning and control of curricula and pedagogy influenced the implementation of the reforms on the ground. This case indicates that trans-nationally driven educational reforms should be conducted with a careful consideration of the societal and cultural factors and values embedded within the society.