Education officials' study tour to Europe likely to boost education reforms in TurkmenistanASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, 24 September 2007 – A Ministry of Education delegation left Ashgabat for a two week study tour to Finland and the UK to get an insight on the education systems of European countries. It is expected that the tour will help to accelerate the education reform processes in Turkmenistan. The study visit, organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund, in cooperation with the UK Embassy in Turkmenistan, Finish Ministry of Education, and European Union, will expose a group of Turkmen education officials to broad issues related to improvement of quality of learning, and management and policy dimensions of a publicly funded education system in Europe. In Finland the delegation will visit the National Board of Education, Ministry of Education, major universities, schools and kindergartens. In England the education specialists will be exposed to the work of Office for Standards in Education, London Centre for Leadership and Learning, Training and Development Agency for Schools, Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, and Centre of Vocational Excellence/Further Education College. UNICEF has been supporting the Government of Turkmenistan in its education reform initiative and was designated as a lead UN agency for education. Both as a lead UN agency and its unique mandate for ensuring quality education for children, UNICEF is offering all possible assistance, especially in the areas of early childhood education and basic education. UNICEF also builds partnerships with other development agencies in supporting the education reform processes. For instance, the study tour to the United Kingdom, fully supported by the UK Embassy in Turkmenistan, is one of the examples of UNICEF’s ongoing collaboration with Great Britain. Early in the year, the British Embassy has delivered through UNICEF dozens of computers and other equipment to five rural schools in the country for children’s interactive learning of English. UNICEF’s cooperation with the European Union centres on discussions on support of quality education initiatives in Turkmenistan.
Gulshat Amandurdiyeva
|
