The new school curriculum must form a high standard of education. The First Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Artem Novikov said during an enlarged meeting on school and out-of-school education, school medicine and school sports. The Government’s press service reported.
The Kyrgyz Academy of Education presented a draft of a new school standard during the meeting.
The First Deputy Prime Minister noted that the education system has been reformed several times over the years of independence, but, despite this, remains imperfect.
Low student performance is often associated with an overloaded curriculum due to the constant reduction of learning hours, for example, in mathematics, the number of hours from 1st to 11th grade decreased from 57 to 52 hours per week, and in science subjects — from 51 to 46 hours.
Artem Novikov
He said that the Ministry of Education has been instructed to revise the existing school curriculum, taking into account increase in the number of hours in basic subjects, including the natural mathematics cycle. «The guidelines of the Ministry of Economy and Finance should not serve as a basis for drawing up curricula. Let’s make a high-quality standard of school education and a normal curriculum from the 1st to the 11th grade and after that we will defend it at the Ministry of Economy and Finance,» the official said.
Artem Novikov also stressed that there are only about 70 out-of-school educational organizations functioning in the republic, which cannot meet the needs of children in additional education. In his opinion, it is necessary to form a unified educational system of interaction between the school curriculum and additional education of children outside school hours. Schools should also increase the number of clubs and classes for children.
Touching upon competency test for school principals, the First Deputy Prime Minister explained that this is necessary process.
«At the same time, it should not turn into a tool for dismissing unwanted school directors. It should be related to school accreditation. The ultimate goal of the competency testing should be improvement of the quality of education of our children, since educated children are the golden reserve of our people. We must make every effort to restore the full cycle of work and education of children in schools, starting with the school curriculum, extracurricular education, school medicine and school sports. This work must be completed within 1-2 years, and some of the components must be launched from September 1, 2021,» he said.
Following the meeting, the Ministry of Education and Science was instructed to:
— Create a working group within a month with participation of school principals and teaching staff and prepare a roadmap for revising the draft state educational standard for school education;
— Revise and prepare a draft of the basic curriculum from the 1st to the 11th grade, taking into account the proposals to eliminate reduction of teaching hours, increase the hours in basic subjects, including the natural and mathematical cycle;
— Conduct an inventory of the regulatory and legal framework of out-of-school organizations for children, develop a standard regulation on out-of-school organization and a standard program of study groups and studios within a month, taking into account proposals for ensuring continuity of school and out-of-school education;
— Make proposals to increase and improve the activities, material and technical base of out-of-school organizations and develop a program of extracurricular activities included in the workload of teachers;
— Carry out a complete inventory of empty buildings and premises for possible placement of children’s study groups in the regions;
— from September 1, 2021 launch a project for development of school sports School League and a project on school medicine.
