Uzbekistan Education System to Date & Challenges

Using the Internet for Participatory Educational Development in Uzbekistan A Review of Best Practices from ‘School Connectivity for Uzbekistan’

Ari Katz

Abstract

This paper will review practices introduced by IREX and UNDP in implementing the “School Connectivity for Uzbekistan” (www.connect.uz) educational technology program, which opened and operated 60 school Internet centers. Two models developed by the program serve as best practices for technology-enhanced participation in educational development, with the flexibility to be easily adapted elsewhere.

In curriculum development, Uzbekistan is struggling to overcome outdated, rote-focused pedagogy. School Connectivity designed a competitive system through which teachers submitted interactive lesson plans online and received expert feedback. Those who compose top lessons are rewarded monthly with stipends towards training colleagues, who then submit their own lessons. All submissions are filed into an e-library - now cataloguing more than 1000 new lesson plans – available freely, and laying the foundation for long-term adoption of modern teaching practices.

Long-term Internet center sustainability is also a critical issue. School Connectivity engaged school parent committees in providing for center maintenance, ensuring future accessibility. Parent committees record funds raised using an online mechanism, publicly documenting on the school website totals contributed and spent. The system increases transparency, support and confidence in the effort.

Overview

Faced with many challenges in reforming its educational system, Uzbekistan has only recently begun to explore the use of computers in its classrooms. School Connectivity for Uzbekistan was an assistance program funded by the US government and administered by the organization IREX (the International Research and Exchanges Board) which set up school Internet centers and trained teachers and students how to use electronic resources effectively for educational development1. With trainers and project coordinators throughout the country, the program was centered around an educational Internet portal – Connect.uz – which provided open access to all of the program’s initiatives, features, and staff.

1 This paper refers to the School Connectivity for Uzbekistan program, which was administered by IREX between 2003 and 2005. In 2005, as part of a Government of Uzbekistan campaign to expel foreign non- governmental organizations from the country, IREX’s registration was revoked and its representative office in Uzbekistan liquidated. Most of the schools whose Internet centers were opened through School Connectivity continue to participate in a UNDP-administered program entitled ‘Capacity Building for Internet Technologies Development and Promotion’ which, among other activities, aims to strengthen and build on the skills teachers and students already gained in using the Internet for education. This paper aims to share best practices developed by the program which could be broadly adapted and applied elsewhere. It focuses on two aspects of the program. First, it will review School Connectivity’s approach towards curriculum development – an innovative project which established a rational, participatory system through which teachers developed the skills to incorporate technology and Internet into their lessons and share the results with the country’s entire educational community.

Second, the paper will explore the program’s approach towards the critical issue of long- term Internet center sustainability. School Connectivity engaged school parent committees in providing for center maintenance, ensuring future accessibility. Using school websites all networked through Connect.uz, schools were able to publicly document funds contributed and spent. The system increased transparency, support and confidence in the effort.

Background

Uzbekistan, like many successor republics from the Soviet Union, suffers from an educational approach and system poorly equipped to deal with the challenges since independence. A series of factors common to transitioning societies combine to preclude primary and secondary education from helping youth achieve their full potential. Teacher salaries are minimal and working conditions primitive in many places, driving many of the most talented instructors away from the field into more rewarding positions. Pedagogy is outdated, oriented towards the repetition of facts rather than the development of problem-solving and decision-making skills. A commodity-export oriented economy forces many of the country’s students and teachers out of school for up to two months every fall as they are sent out to cotton fields to meet local quotas.2

As a result, school graduates find it difficult to compete in the global economy or to find innovative ways to deal with local problems. Environmental devastation continues to haunt the country – the Aral Sea’s disappearance is associated with a rise in serious illnesses; pesticides and other chemicals used in cotton cultivation pollute local water sources throughout the country.3 Uzbekistan ranks 137 out of 159 in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index.4 High population growth that has not kept pace with job creation means many young Uzbeks leave to seek an income abroad. Some estimate that more than 10% of the population works abroad, often as illegal migrant laborers in Kazakhstan and Russia.5

In this environment, educational innovation is not only essential, it is urgent. Uzbekistan’s government has acknowledged its need to adopt strategies to deal with the

2 Environmental Justice Foundation. “The True Cost of Cotton”, December 8, 2005. Accessed at: http://lrights.igc.org/press/ChildLabor/EJFcottonreport_pressrelease_12.08.05.htm. 3 ibid 4 Transparency International. “Corruptoin Perceptions Index 2005,” June 10, 2006. Accessed at: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2005. 5 Khalikov, Yunus. “Uzbekistan Government Ignores Labor Migration Issue,” September 6, 2006. Eurasia Insight, Eurasianet.org. Accessed at: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090606.shtml. new realities, but changes have often come slowly. In order to develop an able cadre of workers equipped to confront the country’s developmental challenges, new methodology must be adopted and implemented that fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and an agile mindset that helps workers respond flexibly to rapidly changing conditions.

School Connectivity for Uzbekistan

Funded by the US government, School Connectivity for Uzbekistan was launched in 2003 as a program that aimed to play a role in helping Uzbekistan’s schools deal with the monumental hurdles described above. The program created 60 school computers centers in 6 target regions6 and then connected them to the Internet. A comprehensive training plan instructed teachers and students how to use electronic resources effectively to enhance their current curriculum. With nearly 10,000 schools7, School Connectivity was a small program. Yet with government plans afoot to expand the use of technology in education8, the program focused on creating a body of experience and a solid group of skillful teachers who could serve as the kernel of a national initiative to productively and sustainably integrate the use of technology into lessons.

While computers were present in many Soviet schools since the late 80s, education was targeted squarely at computer science – that is, training students to use computers. Rarely did teachers attempt to use the computers as a tool for teaching other subjects. This bias continues to the present. Many educators see computers in schools as an end to themselves – equipment that belongs only in ‘informatics’ classes and not in lessons on science, English, economics or math.

This was a preconception vital to change for School Connectivity to be successful. The program saw the Internet as a remarkable educational tool. As a source of information, it brings information from a vast array of perspectives and sources to classrooms where only outdated texts may be available locally. As a device for communication, the Internet links teachers and students to colleagues, peers and experts from diverse backgrounds and from around the globe, to whom they would never have the chance to access in their classrooms. Even more, the program viewed the Internet as an instrument for encouraging critical thinking – by learning to compare, question and evaluate different sources, students would gain the ability to approach problems independently and creatively.

These were all radical ideas for Uzbekistan, so it would have been impossible to simply open computer centers and expect students and teachers to use them to their fullest potential.9 Similarly, staff estimated that it would be ineffective to blanket schools with

6 Andijan, Ferghana, Karakalpakstan, Kashkadarya, Namangan, Surkhandarya 7 UNDP-Uzbekistan and Center for Economic Research, Uzbekistan. “Uzbekistan in Figures: General Education Establishments 2001-2004”Accessed at: http://www.statistics.uz/data_finder/374/. 8 Both the Asian Development Bank and World Bank have been working with the Ministry of Public Education on developing major ICT in Basic Education projects since 2005. 9 Most participants had at least a vague familiarity with the Internet prior to the program’s introduction. Some teachers and students had been trained through another IREX-administered program, the IATP- program, which operates public telecenters in 11 Eurasian countries, including, at the time, Uzbekistan. training and resources, as an audience with no background in the subject matter would be ill-equipped to absorb such instruction usefully. The program was faced with the challenge of transferring experience in technology-assisted education to Uzbekistan’s educators, while fostering the development of native ideas and capacity in using these new resources in efficient, locally-appropriate ways.

Methodology & Implementation Given the preceding factors, IREX decided to approach the program with a strategy designed to employ the multiplier effect in disseminating skills in and enthusiasm for using technology for education. IREX would identify innovative education champions – schools, teachers and students – and empower them to be community models who could demonstrate how student-centered, Internet-enhanced education would vastly improve on current practices.

Initially, the organization conducted a two-stage open competition to select schools with the most progressive approaches and creative, flexible faculty. Once these schools were chosen in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Education, program staff worked to identify key faculty within the schools who would not only be open to experimenting with new pedagogical ideas and tools, but be best able to share what they were learning with their colleagues. This principle of identifying and supporting local champions, then providing incentives to gradually expand the pool of participating educators, guided all School Connectivity activities.

Those teachers who had expressed the most interest and participation during the application process became the program’s target audience during its initial stage. These teachers were provided with intensive small-group training in using student-centered, interactive methodology and how to combine these new methods with educational resources available online. Training topics included:

 student-centered methods including brainstorming, group work, project-based learning, open-ended discussions, and classroom debates  online tools including additional informational resources, research approaches, interactive programs, and online discussions  supporting civic education by creating a democratic atmosphere in the classroom

But IREX was concerned that many new ideas end with the training phase. Instead, School Connectivity’s goal was to create a system of network-building incentives that would establish a growing, cohesive cadre of teachers who could provide mutual support and encouragement to each other as they embarked on a difficult path.

The Modern Lesson Contest

Internet cafes in Uzbekistan – which do exist throughout the country, and may have been for many the first exposure to the word ‘Internet’ – are known primarily as gathering places for young men where they play networked games. As in many countries, Uzbekistan’s minimally-compensated teachers are faced with devising means for additional income. Many spend the hours outside of class offering private tutoring. Intending to spur curriculum development that incorporated teacher participation to the maximum level, IREX was challenged to create viable incentives that would include and reward teachers who spent time exploring and recording how technology could enhance their lessons.

Competition, official recognition and small but notable financial motivation are all widely-acknowledged methods for encouraging otherwise-engaged teachers to dedicate precious spare time to professional development. Though providing the concepts and tools to create new curricular approaches, IREX did not believe that providing ready- made scripts for class would be productive. Such interventions have been discredited in the past, and would counteract the program’s organic, participatory character.

At the same time, the program came into an education system with no history of Internet use, and slow-moving traditional means for the exchange and development of new methods and ideas. It was critical, therefore, for School Connectivity to conceive a way to rapidly both encourage experimentation with new methods and circulate concrete, locally-appropriate examples.

IREX approached this task by creating the “Modern Lesson” contest. The contest would solicit lesson plans from teachers who had been trained by School Connectivity staff and provide valuable feedback from curricular experts to entrants. Every month, the contest would proceed as following:

1. Using their school Internet centers, teachers would, by a monthly deadline, compose and submit lesson plans complying with a template provided on the program website. 2. Program curricular experts would evaluate the lesson plans according to criteria discussed during training and through online information sessions. Two semifinalists would be selected in each of four categories. 3. Semifinalists would “defend” their lesson plans in an online forum meeting, responding to questions from contest organizers and other teachers. 4. Finalists would be chosen and announced on the program website. Finalists would receive a certificate acknowledging their accomplishment. 5. Finalists would arrange and conduct two trainings at nearby schools for other teachers, focused on their lesson, how it could be used by others, and how to compose similar lessons. Upon completing these trainings, finalists would receive a small stipend.

Submissions were welcome in all classroom themes and judged based on the integration of technology and interactive methodology into topics required by the national curriculum. In this way, participants could be sure that their work was both applicable in the classroom and could be used and adapted by other teachers. All submissions to the contest were archived and categorized in the program website’s e-library, which as of October 2006, stores more than 1000 teacher-created resources in 24 different categories. This approach towards curriculum development served a number of key purposes. First, it created an atmosphere of friendly competition and honored recognition for the participants. In an environment where teachers who put in extra effort rarely receive any positive feedback, the effect of receiving a prize from a national-level contest cannot be underestimated. Nukus School No. 1 physical education teacher and June 2004 contest winner Evgeniya Kovaleva emphasized this element of the process:

“Participation in the contest has stimulated many teachers to more creatively approach their work, and activated the self-education process of the teachers themselves. For me personally, this contest helped increase my pedagogical authority. It’s no secret that not everyone respects physical education teachers as specialists. But here, I won this prestigious contest, and got first place! I presented my lesson at the August meetings of Physical Education teachers, and many of them came to me with questions about the contest and how to make a lesson plan.”10

After starting slowly, the contest began to gain traction after about half a year as the viral effect took hold. Teachers who won the contest trained others and notified their colleagues about the opportunity. Program staff gathered an ever-greater pool of interested teachers. The e-library provided examples of winning lesson plans, and guided teachers independently on their own time. In the contest’s first months, the number of entries hovered at between 15-20 entries. By the eighth month – October 2004 – the number increased precipitously, reaching 50 in January 2005, and 54 in May. The total number of entries in the e-library by this point neared 450.

The following excerpt from a program progress report – also written by the paper’s author – and based on a series of interviews with participating teachers, demonstrates exactly how this progression took place.

Nuraniya Bekbulatova, a math teacher at Namangan School No. 34 and contest winner in both August and October, conducted several presentations of her lesson at her own school, School No. 5, and the Namangan Academic Lyceum reaching a total of 40 teachers in her region. Though the themes of the lessons were “Quadratic Equations” and “Decimal Fractions,” teachers from many fields attended her presentations, including mathematics, physics, languages, and history. During her presentations, Bekbulatova explained every stage of her lesson, especially concentrating on those such as student motivation and interactivity, which are unfamiliar to some teachers in Uzbekistan.

Larisa Pak, a Nukus School No. 32 English teacher…conducted her presentations not only for teachers from schools in her region, but also for fourth-year students at Karakalpakstan State University who are frequent users of her school’s

10 IREX. “School Connectivity for Uzbekistan: Biweekly Program News,” January 15, 2005. Accessed at: http://www.irex.org/programs/connectivity/news/2005/0115.asp. Educational Internet Center (EIC) and are interested in learning interactive methodologies.

After these presentations, many attendees also try their hands at entering the contest. Janna Kim, an English teacher at Namangan School No. 34, attended several presentations of her colleague Bekbulatova, and then submitted her entry which won the contest in September. Emil Gaipov, a computer science teacher at Shakhrisabz School No. 93 attended Karshi School No. 34 English teacher Natalya Hamidova’s presentation, then entered the contest in September and was chosen as a finalist. “This contest helped me and other teachers take a fresh look at teaching and taught us to use the Internet as a source of information,” says Namangan School No. 34 English teacher Larisa Rikhsieva. “It also gave us the chance to learn our colleagues’ methods and share with them our experience.”

Teachers are inspired to use the e-library as a reference for good quality lesson plans so they can use them as examples as to what is required for a lesson plan to be judged as a winner in the contest. “I entered my lessons several times, but they haven’t been selected for the final round,” recounted Denau School No. 24 English teacher Abdusalom Alimardanov. “But after we attended a consultation on how to write these plans, I was advised to read through the works of finalists in the e-library. Studying them, I understood what mistakes I was making, and how to more effectively use online resources. Now I hope that my work will be much more successful.”11

Given limited time for teachers to spend on creative curriculum development, ease of website use is a critical factor. Twenty-four lesson plan categories on the connect.uz e- library are divided into even more specific subcategories. ‘Languages’ includes English, French, German, Uzbek, Russian Literature and English ‘Webquests’. ‘Life Sciences’ includes Biology, Zoology, and Human Anatomy. Within each category, lesson plans can be further arranged according to popularity and date. Comments from teachers on each lesson plan – many of which include Powerpoint presentations on how to use the materials – further help teachers decide which resources will be most useful to them.

This approach to curriculum development has created a sustainable community around the project. Teachers actively compose new resources and pull other teachers into the effort. Participants meet online among each other and with experts to discuss and critique materials. All work appears online, leading to piggybacking and further development even when individual lesson plans may not be broadly applicable or fully compliant with curricular needs.

Despite gradually scaled-back staff involvement with the project since the UNDP took on Connect.uz, teachers continue to congregate virtually around the contest. Appreciating the contest’s nationwide importance, the national teacher retraining institute under the Ministry of Public Education – the Avloniy Institute - has absorbed more and more of the administration of the contest, training and providing lesson plan evaluation committee

11 ibid members. As donor involvement in the program is reduced, the community of educators involved in the effort remains strong.

School Connectivity’s approach to curriculum development was intentionally grass-roots. Never meant to be a national reform effort – though coordinated with ongoing national programs – it focused on fostering the competency of Uzbekistan’s teachers to independently integrate the use of technology and interactive methodology into their lessons on all subjects. The government of Uzbekistan is currently implementing several ‘technology in education’ projects, including a large donation of equipment from China and an ICT in Basic Education technical assistance project with the ADB12. The thousands of teachers who have participated in School Connectivity’s Modern Lesson contest are those who will provide the much-valued experience on which the country’s educational reform efforts can build.

The Center Sustainability Initiative

While program funds supported opening, initially staffing, maintaining and connecting the school Internet centers, the long-term existence of centers was the program’s ultimate goal. From early on, program staff focused on generating community support for centers to ensure their long-term viability. Open houses, training for community members and frequent public events based at the centers demonstrated the value of accessible Internet and a high level of community participation confirmed that local residents were interested in utilizing centers. Between 13% and 18% of visitors each month (the 60 centers accumulatively hosted between 70,000 and 90,000 visits a month) were community members not associated with schools.

After a year of existence, schools were encouraged to provide some fee-based services and specialized courses, and many were successful at introducing these activities. Yet the challenge remained to ensure center availability while ensuring that they did not evolve into Internet cafes with minimal public service orientation.

IREX believed school parent committees played a significant role in the sustainability equation. Parents frequently expressed the desire to guarantee computer accessibility to their children. The program initially provided training to school parent committees in conducting fundraising initiatives. Training included strategic planning, identifying local sponsors, and event coordination. Termez School No. 13 parent committee member Jumakul Khudoykulov confirmed the trainings’relevance and purpose:

“Before the seminar, I didn’t really understand why I should participate. But during the training, we created a plan for financing our EIC. I have become really interested in this, so that our children can have the possibility of continually using the Internet, and I call all parents to join in this effort. I’m most grateful that the program helps us to achieve this.”13 12 Asian Development Bank. “ADB Helps Central Asia to Integrate ICT in Basic Education.” June 8, 2006. Accessed at: http://www.adb.org/Documents/News/URM/urm-200604.asp. 13 IREX. “School Connectivity for Uzbekistan: Biweekly Program News,” January 31, 2005. Accessed at: http://www.irex.org/programs/connectivity/news/2005/0131.asp#1. By the fall of 2004, schools were conducting regular events including bake sales, concerts, trivia contests, raffles and art exhibitions. While small in scale, where parent committees demonstrated commitment, these activities generated just enough funds to pay for the regular needs of center maintenance. Only a few dollars a month could ensure that printers had toner, defective mouses were replaced, and the occasional equipment breakdown received service. Having created the space for parent-initiated fundraising efforts, School Connectivity’s challenge remained to sustain parent efforts while creating a system that could be depended on for its transparency and integrity.

Transparency and accountability are, traditionally, major obstacles for any initiatives involving use of funds in the developing world, and this is no less so in Central Asia. It was therefore imperative of the program, while introducing a concept that would require the contribution of community funds, to devise a means of ensuring that funds were used for their intended purpose. Technology can play a key role in this effort. Websites are by nature publicly accessible. Information recorded on websites can be used to demonstrate information in a transparent manner.

This task was met by designing a unique, technology-enhanced online utility.

1. Each school dedicated a section of its website to its fundraising efforts. 2. A user-friendly data entry facility was created, based at the program’s central website, Connect.uz. A designated representative would enter information on the school’s fundraising efforts, including a brief summary of activities conducted, amounts raised, amounts spent, and equipment purchased/maintenance needs met with the funds spent. 3. This information was reflected on the special section of the school’s website, as well as on the central program site for ease of comparison.

This system was simple to use and its use became a routine part of any fundraising activities at many schools. It enabled parents to raise money for center maintenance, track the funds’ use and be certain that they were used for the intended purposes. It also enabled community members to check on the efforts of other schools and use this information for motivation. As part of the initiative, frequent online discussions allowed parent committee members to discuss ideas and exchange best practices with other schools throughout the country.

Despite increased staff attention to this initiative, adoption was not universal. At some schools, few updates appeared on their websites and when they did, they were vague and unclear. Yet at many schools, the online updates sparked greater parent participation. They could see their efforts reflected in a public forum, and gain recognition for the time and energy invested in their schools. The impact observed was that after the sustainability training and the introduction of the online function, the program observed a remarkable increase in parent involvement in the centers. With reduced sponsor funding, many of the centers that still operate today would have significant difficulty doing so were it not for the regular inputs of parent committees. Online recording of fundraising efforts – without the obligatory participation that could only result from government adoption – became a useful function in the toolbox of ideas for those who wished to provide for their centers’ sustainability while doing so transparently. It also established the practice of public accountability for school-oriented funds, one that serves a key role in increasing community demand for responsible spending and transparent administration.

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Due to its closure in Uzbekistan, IREX did not have the opportunity to provide comprehensive follow-up to these initiatives past the fall of 2005. However, their continued existence are testament to both usability and appropriateness for Uzbekistan. The Modern Lesson contest continues to attract between 40-50 entries per month. Between 5-10 schools update their fundraising pages each month. Both these initiatives developed valuable local experience that can continue to be built on into the future.

Still, there are a number of valuable lessons that can be derived from these activities. Foremost is that for online initiatives to be effective in places without a significant level of computer ownership or online culture, local in-person support is imperative. The Modern Lesson contest could not have taken place only as an online activity. Its purpose was, in fact, to provide sustained follow-up to regional trainings. It only gained momentum after many months of invested effort by regional staff in forming a solid group of teachers who understood the benefits of technology in planning their lessons. Similarly, the online center sustainability function required in-person training and continued encouragement for many months before school parent committees gained the necessary skills and confidence to use the facility independently.

Next, local applicability is vital. One primary reason Modern Lesson gained popularity slowly was that initially, locally-applicable models using student-centered methodology and technology were rare and under-developed. Initially, adventurous teachers undertook the work necessary and built on critiques from program staff. Their work slowly generated the examples that other teachers could learn from and build on. This process eventually generated its own momentum. Lesson plans introduced from abroad or bluntly adapted to Uzbekistan would never have served as broad a scope of teachers as those developed by their own colleagues, taking into consideration local realities.

Finally, the creation of an online community is both central to any efforts to introduce the use of Internet in education and helpful in accomplishing the above objectives. Without an online center for progressive educators, those who wish to bring innovation to their students are isolated and discouraged. Yet by joining activities for educators online, even in schools where only one or two teachers were initially enthusiastic about the benefits of new methodologies, those educators could feel like part of a wide community at the vanguard of educational reform. A schedule of frequent online discussions gave teachers the opportunity to share their ideas and receive feedback. Online meetings as part of the lesson plan contest allowed distant curriculum experts to respond to lesson plan designers and help shape revisions. Likewise, at monthly online events for parent committee members, discussion participants related events conducted at their schools and helped disseminate successes and advice for those attempting new events at their schools. The Connect.uz online community continues to serve as a meeting place for teachers and parents determined to improve the quality of education in Uzbekistan.

School Connectivity for Uzbekistan was a dynamic, ambitious program that demonstrated the wide-ranging benefits of technology in education for the first time in the country. By linking together dedicated educators, school administrators, and community members, the program created a core of change agents who could learn from each other and develop useful, relevant experience that will be helpful in the long-term effort to transform Uzbekistan’s education system into one that is modern and globally- competitive.

Short Bio – Ari Katz

Ari Katz was the Program Manager of School Connectivity for Uzbekistan from 2003 to 2005. He currently works as Senior Program Officer at the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Washington, DC, where he oversees all of IREX’s Technology for Development programs. These include Global Connections (the successor to School Connectivity), the Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) in 11 Eurasian countries, and the Regional Library Information Centers program (RLIC) in Azerbaijan. Ari received his Masters degree in in Governance and Development in 2002 from the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.