Government Keen to Popularise Kyrgyz
Government Keen to Popularise Kyrgyz
Concerns are growing that not enough people in Kyrgyzstan can speak the state language, Kyrgyz. NBCentralAsia commentators say the government needs to offer free courses and good educational resources to encourage ethnic minorities and Russophone Kyrgyz to take up the language.
On June 15, State Secretary Adakhan Madumarov called on those citizens who are not ethnic Kyrgyz to study the language as a mark of “respect to the people who gave the country its name”, according to the AKIpress news agency.
Ethnic Kyrgyz make up 65 per cent of the population, and most speak their mother tongue, which is constitutionally the “state language”. However, Russian – designated an “official language” – is the lingua franca used by Kyrgyz and minority groups alike, including the ten per cent ethnic Russian minority.
According to playwright Mar Bayjiev, who former head of the Centre for State Language Studies, ethnic minorities are held back from learning Kyrgyz because of the shortage of good textbooks and other educational resources and the inadequate number of professional teachers.
Bayjiev says that rather than take special steps to popularise the language and make it more accessible, the authorities simply need to encourage more people to take courses, not only in schools and universities but also in government institutions. These courses should teach people the basics of Kyrgyz in two months.
According to Alexander Ivanov, head of the Russian Union of Kyrgyzstan, the teaching methods for Kyrgyz as a second language need to be revamped because they have hardly changed since the country became independent in 1991.
“The most important thing is to make more language courses available and, if possible, free of charge,” Ivanov said.
Tashboo Jumagulov, head of the president’s National Commission for the State Language, would like to see educational material and language courses offered free to any citizen interested in learning.
According to Jumagulov’s statistics, there are 19 centres in Kyrgyzstan outside the normal schools that offer Kyrgyz courses, but only 700 people studied the language last year.
Jumagulov blames those ethnic Kyrgyz who he says “don’t show much enthusiasm for learning Kyrgyz”, and thus make it harder to popularise the language.
Nevertheless, Deputy Prime Minister Nur Uulu Dosbol says more attention is now being paid to the issue - textbooks and manuals are being published in the language, while more curriculum hours have been allocated for Kyrgyz lessons in schools and universities.
Given “proper organisation and funding”, the government will succeed in raising the profile of Kyrgyz, without this being to the detriment of other languages used in the country, Dosbol added.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On June 15, State Secretary Adakhan Madumarov called on those citizens who are not ethnic Kyrgyz to study the language as a mark of “respect to the people who gave the country its name”, according to the AKIpress news agency.
Ethnic Kyrgyz make up 65 per cent of the population, and most speak their mother tongue, which is constitutionally the “state language”. However, Russian – designated an “official language” – is the lingua franca used by Kyrgyz and minority groups alike, including the ten per cent ethnic Russian minority.
According to playwright Mar Bayjiev, who former head of the Centre for State Language Studies, ethnic minorities are held back from learning Kyrgyz because of the shortage of good textbooks and other educational resources and the inadequate number of professional teachers.
Bayjiev says that rather than take special steps to popularise the language and make it more accessible, the authorities simply need to encourage more people to take courses, not only in schools and universities but also in government institutions. These courses should teach people the basics of Kyrgyz in two months.
According to Alexander Ivanov, head of the Russian Union of Kyrgyzstan, the teaching methods for Kyrgyz as a second language need to be revamped because they have hardly changed since the country became independent in 1991.
“The most important thing is to make more language courses available and, if possible, free of charge,” Ivanov said.
Tashboo Jumagulov, head of the president’s National Commission for the State Language, would like to see educational material and language courses offered free to any citizen interested in learning.
According to Jumagulov’s statistics, there are 19 centres in Kyrgyzstan outside the normal schools that offer Kyrgyz courses, but only 700 people studied the language last year.
Jumagulov blames those ethnic Kyrgyz who he says “don’t show much enthusiasm for learning Kyrgyz”, and thus make it harder to popularise the language.
Nevertheless, Deputy Prime Minister Nur Uulu Dosbol says more attention is now being paid to the issue - textbooks and manuals are being published in the language, while more curriculum hours have been allocated for Kyrgyz lessons in schools and universities.
Given “proper organisation and funding”, the government will succeed in raising the profile of Kyrgyz, without this being to the detriment of other languages used in the country, Dosbol added.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
