Education Development Strategies for Asian Countries

in the New Century- Mongolia

S. Tumur - Ochir

 Vice Minister, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of Mongolia

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Distinguished Guests and Representatives,

In the last several years, Mongolia has been making greater efforts to reform its education sector. Mongolia intends to pursue a policy its citizens with quality education that allows competency in the world market despite its sparse population, underdeveloped infrastructure and high rates of poverty and unemployment.

Prior to 1990, Mongolia had boasted with its high enrollment rate in education and had been recognized by the ENESCO as one of the countries with the highest literacy rate.

A steep decline in the number of students in the beginning of the 1990s when Mongolia started a transition to a market economy was caused by several reasons such as boys dropped out from school in order to help their parents with the privatized livestock, and they faced with economic vulnerability such as insufficiency of clothes and textbooks. At that time almost 8% of students dropped out of school per years.

It is worthy to note that in the recent years a school drop out rate has been decreased and the value of education of education has been improved which resulted in increased enrollment in primary and secondary schools.

However enrollment rates in some rural areas are still lower than those in cities and urban areas .The current basic education enrollment rate of Mongolia is 94.1 per cent. In other words, this means that one out of every nine children aged 7 to 15 is out of school.

Since the mid 1990s the migration towards Ulaanbaatar, the capital city and provincial centers has caused over enrollment in the urban schools and the decreased number of students in the rural areas.

The number of female students tends to exceed that of male students in middle grades and eventually the proportion of female and male students in the upper grades is 56:44, and 2:1 ratio in higher education. This is a very rare occurrence in other countries of the world.

The number of students at technical and vocation schools was 31.2 thousand in 1998 whereas in 1994 this decreased to 7.6 thousand. Lately the number of students enrolled in technical and vocation schools has increased to 22 thousand. The number of undergraduate students enrolled in universities institutes and colleges increased to 123.8 thousand in 2004, whereas this number was only 13.8 thousand in 1990.

At present out education sector suffers from poor quality and efficiency. Disparities between learning achievements, supply of teaching staff, and learning environments in the urban and rural areas increasing. On the other hand, there are also social and economic factors that negatively influence the above mentioned facts.

The Mongolian education sector currently faces a number of challenges to restore education distortions increase the enrollment rates of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools improve inclusiveness of education services provide quality education for the population and strengthen management capacity at all levels of educational organizations.

The reformed education contents focus on providing students with life and livelihood skills and basic knowledge of both traditional and modern technology developments.

“The concepts of reforming primary and secondary education standards” to reform and develop primary and secondary education contents and systems increase the quality of education services, provide quality education services for the population, as well as determine the foundations and further trends of sustainable development were developed and have been implemented since 2002. The current social human and education development factors, adequate relationship of globalization and nationalization as well as centralization and decentralization have been considered in developing “The concepts of reforming primary and secondary education standards”.

The following principles are considered as basics of the country’s sustainable development:

Social development in the new century:

- Reach sustainable development by ensuring the harmony between globalization and national interests;

- Accelerate the pace of information, science and technology development;

- Consider knowledge, information and advance technology as basic resources of economic development;

Human development in the new century:

- Think creatively and critically;

-Develop by life long learning;

- Make adequate selection of information resources;

- Acquire skills of responsible and adequate decision making;

International education development:

- Standardize education with a mission to provide students with competency;

- Improve education quality by reforming education based on standards;

- Provide quality education for the population.

In accordance with “The concepts of reforming primary and secondary education standards,” primary and secondary education standards were developed and started being implemented in the academic years of 2005-2006. By enrolling 7-year olds in the first grade of general secondary schools, the transition to an 11-year education system started successfully.

The development and implementation of the new primary and secondary education standards bring a new era to education reform.

About 1.1 billion tugriks is needed for the implementation of the primary and secondary education standards, transition to an 11 year education system, provision of in-service teacher training improvement of learning environments and development of new textbooks. For the above-mentioned activities states budget, loans and grants from donors, international organizations are being spent currently. However, the present available financial resources are not sufficient for strengthening education reforms in all aspects.

There is a tendency that the number of school entrants will decrease starting from the academic year of 2005-2006.It is projected that the enrollment rate in the 2009-2006. It is projected that the enrollment rate in the 2009-2010 academic year will decrease by 14 percent compared to the present enrollment. This situation builds positive opportunities to make a transition into a 12-year education system based on the experiences accumulated by the transition into an 11-year education system.

The following measures have been identified as necessary to ensure to ensure preparations to shift into a 12-year education system.

- Develop and implement a Master Plan to develop the Mongolian education system in 2006-2015(this work already is in place and the development of the Master Plan is expected to be completed before the end of 2005). The proposed Master Plan will define the strategies of the Mongolian education development in the 21 century.

- Include issues of 6 year-olds enrollment and the transition to a 12-year education system in the Laws of Education (proposed addendums to the Laws on Education have been submitted to the Parliament).

- Construct and rehabilitate school facilities in the urban areas including cities, and provincial centers with dense population through annual state budget and external loans and grants (According the survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science there is a need to construct 45 new schools in the urban areas in the amount of 54.7 billion tugricks. Out of this 16.4 billion tugriks can be disbursed form the state budget.)

- The enrollment of 6-year olds in schools, the biggest challenge will be faced by herder’s children and if we estimate that 10% of the children from herder families will stay in dormitories then dormitories with 4.7 thousand beds will be needed.

- In accordance with a transition to a 12-year education system and enrolling 6-year olds there is a need to train 1500 new primary education teachers. This can be solved by increasing the enrollment of primary school teacher training institutes.

- It is paramount to attract the initiatives and interests of all levels of state administrative and education organizations and mass media for the expansion of initiatives to prepare herders children for schools, ensuring parents’ psychological readiness that their 6-uear olds will be enrolled in school as well as introducing the importance of the reform to parents and communities.

The transition to a 12-year education system by enrolling 6-year olds in the first grades in order to reach international standards is one of the important challenges encountered by educational organizations of our country.

Goals toward raising quality of education, of education, increasing the competitive environment, providing jobs for higher education graduates and increasing the number of students in development countries are in force for the new century.

Furthermore goals towards improving English language training in all sub-sectors of schools and knowledge of English language in society are in demand.

Reduction of school drop out rates to increase the number of school entrants, elimination of gender disparities, and provision of literacy for children and adults and implementation of the Millennium Development Goals are in priority. As the initiator of the UN literacy Decade, Mongolia is a positive example towards implementing literacy for all in countries in Asia and the Pacific regions.

The education goals of Mongolia are designed ultimately towards decreasing unemployment rate and poverty in Mongolia. On one hand, it is true that education is the path to eliminating poverty; on the other hand education and rapid industry development are directly related. Hence, the above mentioned goals are put forward as the basis for decreasing poverty and unemployment.

The ability to respect and show love for others, to be keen for one’s country and exude national pride are issues that are in need to be enveloped in the education sector of our country. It is our goal to work with other countries in Asia and the Pacific region on these issues. I deeply hope that this Asian Pacific region countries’ Forum designed for strategy development for the 21 century will accelerate Mongolia’s education development and sustainability.

Thank you for your attention.