Figure 1.--Here is a scene from an Islamic madrasa in 1890. We do not know just wehere in the country the photograph was taken, but Samarkand seems likely. |
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We know little about early education in Uzbekistan. Uzbek officials point to a Chinese scholar, Suan Tsan, who reported 5-year old boys in Samarkand being taught how to read, write and count. These boys then persued business and trade on silk road caravans. We have little information about education in the ensuing 1,000 yesrs but education appears to have been very limited, confined primarily to Islamic madrassas. Girls were not educated at all. Boys at the madrassas memmorized Koranic verses and other Islamic texts. Lessons were primarily chanting verses and boys who did not learned the verses were beaten. The Russian invasion (1868) brought modern education to Uzbekistan for the first time. The Russian Revolution brought a atheism campaign. Islam and other religions were percecuted and madreasses were shut down. The education of girls was promoted.
Uzbekistan became independent after the disolution of the Soviet Union (1992). One of the first laws passed by independent Uzbekistan was the Education Law (June l992). Uzbekistan today has a very young population as a result of a high birth rate, a reflection of the country's still rural population. The Government reports that children, teenagers, and young people under the age of 25 comprise approximately 60 percent of the total population. The authoritarian Government, however, has mismanaged the economy. Only limited funds are available to finance a nodern education system and few jobs are beding created for graduates as a result of the country's boribund population.
There are about 1 million kindergarten children and 5 million school children. About one-third of the primary children go on to academic secondary schools or trade sdchools.
We know little about early education in Uzbekistan. Education and learning in the early Islamic period flourished. Uzbek officials point to a Chinese scholar, Suan Tsan, who reported 5-year old boys in Samarkand being taught how to read, write and count. These boys then persued business and trade on silk road caravans. Education florished in the great
oasis mercantile cities of the Silk Road (Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent). These cities became important intellectual centers of the Muslim world. Notble scholars, philosophers and cultural leaders included Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ulugh Beg, Nawaiy, and Babur Shah. Important works inckuded Avicenna's Canon of Medicine, Al-Ferghani's (Alfraganus) Fundamentals of Astronomy, Babur's Baburnama, and Nawaiy's Divans.
The work of these Central Asian scholars were know as far west as Spain (10th century).
Tamerlane made Amurkand his capital as Central Asian began to revover from the Mongol invasions.
We have little information on the later Islamic period. Education appears to have been very limited. The European voyages of discobery open sea lanes to Asia. The Silk Road and the economies of Central Asia fell into a prolonged decline. Central Asia became isolated from the wider woirld.
This affected education which gradually atriphied. This appears to have been the case in the 19th century. Education was confined primarily to Islamic madrassas with very limited curiculum. Girls were not educated at all. Boys at the madrassas memmorized Koranic verses and other Islamic texts. Lessons were primarily chanting verses and boys who did not learned the verses were beaten.
The Russian invasion (1868) brought modern education to Uzbekistan for the first time. We have few details, however, about schools during the Tsarist era. I believe the Russians opened schools in the major cities, but did not require children to attend. Thus only a small number of Uzbeks were educated. There was little effort to open schools in rural areas. The Islamic madrassas continued to operate.
An important figure in Uzbek education was Aini. He question traditional education methods and curriculum. Aini did not think a curriculum limited to chanting Koranic verses and punishing boys for not remembering cirrectly was a reasonable education system. He fell foul of tradional Islamists and got thrown in prison from time to time where he was beaten.
The Russian Revolution brought a atheism campaign. Islam and other religions were percecuted and madrasas were shut down. The education of girls was promoted. Children were educated in large numbers for the first time.
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Uzbekistan became independent after the disolution of the Soviet Union (1992). One of the first laws passed by independent Uzbekistan was the Education Law (June l992). Uzbekistan today has a very young population as a result of a high birth rate, a reflection of the country's still rural population. The Government reports that children, teenagers, and young people under the age of 25 comprise approximately 60 percent of the total population. The authoritarian Government, however, has mismanaged the economy. Only limited funds are available to finance a nodern education system and few jobs are beding created for graduates as a result of the country's boribund population.
There are about 1 million kindergarten children and 5 million school children. About one-third of the primary children go on to academic secondary schools or trade sdchools. The Government banned private schools with the justification that the state provided education to all children (1993). Of course this really means that the Government want to titally control education and have a monopoly on the ideas to which children are exposed. Uzbekistan Law requires the separation of education from religion. Thus there are no religious schools. The Government did permit the establishment of the Tashkent Islamic University (1999).
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Created: 4:24 AM 2/13/2007
Last updated: 4:24 AM 2/13/2007
