Announcements have appeared in Ashgabat schools that no tuition fees will be introduced in secondary schools.
Let us recall that on 10 October monthly fees in Turkmenistan’s kindergartens increased tenfold from 8 to 80 manats a month per child.
For families with 3 and more children the fee rose to 40 manats per child and 10 manats for single mothers.
This led to the fact that parents started taking their children out of kindergarten. As a result, there are many vacancies in pre-school educational establishments.
After tuition fees had increased in kindergartens, the rumors of fees to be imposed in schools 100 manats per student started circulating.
Two weeks later announcements were posted in Ashgabat schools that no tuitions fees would be imposed.
It should be mentioned that pursuant to Turkmenistan’s Constitution “general secondary education shall be compulsory; everyone shall be entitled to receive it in public educational institutions free of charge”.
According to sources at “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, starting from 2018, the introduction of fees in specialized schools (schools which focus on Maths and Physics, language schools etc) is now under discussion.
This does not contract Turkmenistan’s Constitution.Pursuant to the Constitution, “On the basis and in the manner prescribed by law, governmental and non-governmental organizations, citizens shall have the right to engage in fee-based educational activity”.