Building the Right Skills for Human Capital: Education, Skills, and Productivity in the Kyrgyz Republic

Abstract

THIS IS A CONFERENCE EDITION FOR PUBLICATION EXPECTED IN NOVEMBER 2020. Building the Right Skills for Human Capital summarizes the findings from the 2019 skills survey for the adult Kyrgyz population. The skills measures used in the survey focus on literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology rich environments (PSTRE) and followed the same questions and approach as the OECD’s PIAAC surveys. Most jobs in the Kyrgyz Republic require regular use of reading, writing, numeracy, and ICT skills, and higher skilled groups of people earn higher wages, suggesting that the labor market rewards higher skills. However, skills levels among the workforce are consistently low in absolute terms, among varying sociodemographic groups, and relative to countries that implemented PIAAC surveys. Results are not improving across cohorts, except for PSTRE. There is evidence that a substantial share of people is overschooled, but underskilled. The lack of quality of education is an important driver for low skills performance. The report finds that higher levels of education are associated with higher skills levels, but even among the most educated, a large share has low skills scores, which helps explain why we find that a large share can be overeducated but underskilled for the jobs they occupy. Skill levels of secondary school teachers were also assessed. Teachers outperform the general population in both literacy and numeracy but underperform compared to professionals. Overall, one-third of teachers still have low proficiency in literacy and numeracy. With regards to ICT skills, the results suggest that nearly all secondary school teachers are currently not well equipped to impart ICT skills on their students. The book concludes with a series of policy recommendations at different levels of education, from early childhood education through life-long learning, including providing upskilling opportunities for those teachers with specific skill deficiencies.