School graduates seeking to be admitted to higher and secondary vocational educational establishments in Turkmenistan are taking their entrance exams.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that since currency conversion was not permitted last year, parents of prospective students were charged bribes in manats whereas now only dollars are accepted.
At the same time, compared to the previous year the amounts of bribes in US dollars dropped down.
For instance, the amount equivalent to $50-60 thousand was charged to be enrolled into the Medical University in 2017 whereas now it has gone down to about $30 thousand. $70-80 thousand had to be paid for being admitted to the Legal Studies Department of Turkmenistan State University last year whereas now the bribe amounts to $40 thousand. “Entrance” fees in other departments of Turkmenistan State University range from $23 to 28 thousand.
It should be emphasized that due to such unaffordable bribes, parents prefer to send their children to pursue educational opportunities in overseas universities.
There are reports that parents of children who might be selected for a study abroad government program need to pay a bribe of $35 thousand.Moreover, one of the parents reported that starting from 2018 academic year the government will no longer be paying for these children and that parents will have to cover the tuition.
We have failed to confirm this information from other sources so far.
According to “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, 7% of seats are reserved for prize winners of school Olympiads, 6$ for orphans, 4% for children and сlose relatives of officials, whereas other applicants get enrolled for bribes.