ALMATY, 8 February (IRIN): As the Turkmen people go to the polls on 11 February to vote in their first presidential elections in 15 years, there are hopes for urgently needed reforms in healthcare and education in the Central Asian former Sovjet Republic.
Most presidential candidates acknowledge that something needs to be done about the parlous state of Turkmenistans health and education systems, which suffered years of decline under President Saparmyrat Niyazov, who died in December.
– There is a lot to do and nothing has been done yet, Michael Denison of the University of Leeds, a specialist on the area, said.
The 20-year rule of Niyazov – known as Turkmenbashy (leader of the Turkmens) – was marked by eccentricities that grabbed headlines in the West, ranging from a ban on ballet and gold teeth, to building a lake in the middle of the desert.
Such reports often distracted the outside world from more serious social problems in this country of five million people, such as failing healthcare and a huge drop in education standards.
Niyazov – Turkmenistans Soviet-era leader, who won 99,5 percent of the vote in presidential elections in 1992 and was named president for life in 1999 – ruled with an iron fist. He quashed (knuste) dissent, forcing opponents into jail or exile, allowing only one political party – his own.
Healthcare
Turkmenistan is among 50 countries with the highest under-five mortality rates, according to the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) State of the Worlds Children 2007 report.
A report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on Turkmenistan in 2005 said the healthcare system was deteriorating. In March 2004, 15.000 health workers were dismissed and replaced by military conscripts (værnepigtige).
In February 2005, the president ordered the closure of all hospitals outside the capital Ashgabat, saying patients all over the country who needed hospitalisation would be better treated in the capital.
Presidential hopefuls
The cuts were pushed through by the health minister, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who is acting president and considered the election frontrunner – handpicked by the political establishment.
He is challenged by five lesser-known officials, Ishanguli Nuriyev, Ashirniyav Pomanov, Abadan Karadzhayev, Amanniyaz Atadzhikov and Mukhammednazar Gurbanov.
Berdymukhammedov pledges to boost the under-resourced health system with modern facilities, a new institute to train doctors and greater access to western medicine.
He and the other candidates have also put education – which Denison described as “probably the biggest single problem of the Niyazov era” – on the campaign agenda.
Education
Under Niyazov, basic education was cut to nine years, and university degrees to two. Access to higher education was restricted by a pre-university work-experience requirement and enrolment declined from 40.000 in the 1990s to 3.000 in 2004, according to UNICEF.
Opportunities to study abroad were curtailed.
Curricula at all levels of the education system were dominated by the study of the Ruhnama, a quasi-spiritual guide written by Niyazov, producing a generation of students lacking knowledge of core subjects and ill-equipped to work in a modern economy.
Some ordinary Turkmens say they are reluctant to take their children to doctors who graduated from Turkmen medical institutions during Niyazovs rule.
– When I take my daughter to a doctor, I try to make sure I get someone who graduated before 1991 to see my daughter. Those who got their medical degrees after 1991, their level is poor and I cannot trust them, Mered, 45, a resident of the capital, Ashgabat, told IRIN.
The education system suffers from “a multiplicity of problems including inadequate resources, a narrow curriculum and the effective dismantlement of the tertiary system”, Denison said.
Berdymukhammedovs reform pledges include increasing the number of higher-education establishments, expanding opportunities to study abroad and bringing foreign staff to Turkmen universities.
UNICEF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) welcomed the changes mooted (bragt på bane) by all candidates.
“The expected reforms will include the extension of basic education from nine to 10 years, internet access for all pupils and opportunities for more young people to complete some of their training and education abroad. Pledges to go ahead with such reforms promise a lot of new opportunities for the children of Turkmenistan as well as future generations,” the two UN agencies said in a press release on 25 January.
International academic contacts could offer new chances to a generation largely cut off from the outside world, observers say.
– Foreign countries can contribute by continuing the kinds of efforts the US, Great Britain, France, Germany and Turkey have been making in the country with language and study programmes and by offering study abroad, Victoria Clement of Western Carolina University, who has studied Turkmenistans education sector, said.
Berdymukhammedov has not specified how he would finance social reforms, but revenues from Turkmenistans significant energy reserves could be one avenue.
– A considerable proportion of oil and gas reserves went into off-budgetary accounts personally controlled by Niyazov. Some oil and gas reserves were put into building projects – follies if you like. I think we will see an end to that. That will free up some money, Denison said.
Denison added that if the political liberalisation hinted at materialises, funding may be forthcoming from the international community.
While paying lip service to Niyazovs legacy, Berdymukhammedovs statements indicate that a measure of change is in the offing, and the election campaign has served to open up political discourse.
The government “is probably hoping they can rebuild the social capital in the country and redevelop the health and education sectors”, Denison said.
Whether a new political landscape will translate into improved healthcare and education for Turkmens remains to be seen, but observers are cautiously optimistic.
– I can not imagine change will come rapidly. But there is a bit of hope, Denison concluded.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan has a reclusive (indesluttet) regime rivalling North Koreas
The country has the worlds fifth-largest gas reserves
Basic school education was cut to nine years
University degrees are given only after two years
Despite having the worlds fifth-largest gas reserves and substantial oil supplies, Turkmenistan ranked 45th – lower than its poorer Central Asian neighbours, Tajikistan (59) and Kyrgyzstan (63).
Tajikistan experienced a civil war between 1992 and 1997 which badly affected the countrys healthcare system.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
