Blockchain Papers

Sabina Sadiyeva

No abstract is available for this record.

Тетяна Дудка, Mykola Chumak

The content of the article provides a theoretical analysis of international comparative research, which potential is rather significant in pedagogical theory and practice. The relevance of the study has been problematized by the need to deepen the profile of international research cooperation to overcome the current destabilization processes. The priority of comparative analysis has been outlined at the level of phenomenological functioning. The importance of the influence of these factors (in particular, political, social and cultural, scientific, organizational, and methodological) on the development of the phenomenon under study has been considered as a whole. The theoretical (analysis, systematization, and modeling), empirical, and statistical methods have been used as research tools. The prospects for further development of international comparative studies of pedagogical centering have been presented in terms of the priority of the conditions of the decentralization. The cross impact on the domestic phenomenological functioning of two interrelated factors – the transformation of the socialist camp into the post-socialist space, the globalization and the integration of education into the international social and cultural space has been generalized. The supranational social orientation of the studied phenomenon has been considered in terms of its theoretical, methodological, and empirical content. The importance of exogenous (international educational policy, the level of international recognition of educational structures and the quality of educational training taking into account the requirements of the international labor market, indicators of external financing of educational projects, etc.) and endogenous (consistency of the norms of the current legal framework of the state with the trends of world educational progress, financing the development of the industry, the interest of management structures in the innovative development of education, etc.) determinants of the productivity of phenomenological functioning has been highlighted. The advantages of multi-object international comparative research over mono-object research in terms of the study of multifaceted pedagogical phenomena has been emphasized. It is worth noting that the priority of integration trends on the way to resolving everyday problems is especially relevant for the education sector, in which productive functioning is not possible under the conditions of international isolation. It has been emphasized that by comparing domestic and foreign branch achievements to make rationally balanced decisions at the national level, it is possible to gain further social and cultural well-being and educational progress. It has been identified that only with a fair assessment of the functioning of education, upbringing, and learning at the level of different countries, a set of effective measures to improve the efficiency of these branches can be chosen. A special value of pedagogically centered international research, which allows analyzing the chosen subject of the study within wide geographical and time limits has been generalized.

Oktiabr Topbaev

This research has been conducted within the framework of the joint project ‘Integrated Watershed Management in Central Asia – Implementing an Educational and Research Concept for Capacity Building in Kyrgyzstan’, driven by German and Kyrgyz universities and financed by the German Volkswagen Foundation. After gaining its independence in 1991, Kyrgyzstan was confronted with arising social and economic difficulties. The newly formed Kyrgyz government was not able to provide the population with a functioning drinking water supply system (WSS) and all its connected proper services. Nowadays, many villages in Kyrgyzstan lack adequate WSSs for drinking as well as irrigation water. The present thesis is focused on problems in the accessibility to clean drinking water in rural areas of Central Kyrgyzstan. On the example of the village of Kara-Suu in the central Naryn oblast, the today's structures of the WSSs are examined. Kara-Suu was chosen as a more or less typical soviet-style Kyrgyz village in order to find some answers to the defined main research question: What are the problems in the management of drinking WSS in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan? Most data has been gathered during field research by using the following methods: An overview of the research area was gained by direct and indirect, respectively participating and non-participating observation, on- site inspection, mapping of the water supply system in a GIS, semi-structured expert interviews with various stakeholders and representatives of different authorities, and standardized interviews on the basis of a questionnaire with villagers of Kara-Suu. The study in Kara-Suu showed that after getting independent in 1991, ownership and operation of the rural drinking WSS were decentralized and handed over to the administration of the village and villagers themselves. However, the administration as well as the villagers has little knowledge about management, operation and maintenance of a local drinking WSS, which has originally been planned and managed by the prior existing soviet collective farms. The deterioration of the freshwater WSS in Kara-Suu expresses itself in the fact that much of the water supply infrastructure (e.g. pumps, pipelines, public standpipes) is technically outdated, poorly maintained and out of function due to the discontinuation of funding from the government as well as the unwillingness or inability of the local community and people to self-management. Based on the investigations in Kara-Suu, it can be concluded that the problem of inadequate access to water and its partially poor quality are rather rooted in the poor management and low awareness of local people, than in the physical availability of enough fresh water for domestic use and consumption. The main conclusions of this research are as follows: 1) Only the investment of money cannot improve the situation in the WSS in rural areas; 2) It is necessary to change the attitude of the water user towards water as an economic good; 3) To raise awareness, responsibility and capacity of people to manage the WSS properly; 4) Not only to build a WSS, but also to establish the legal and social institutions that would help to create the needed conditions for a sustainable development and management of the rural water infrastructure.

Jan Herczyński

We analyze the governance structure and the financing of Kyrgyz education, with special emphasis on the general secondary education system. General secondary schools are under the authority of oblasts and rayons. Our main findings are as follows: 1. The oblast and rayon authorities in Kyrgyzstan are in fact delegated offices of the central administration, with highly non-transparent reporting lines, very little budgetary independence, diffused political responsibility and politicized control over financial flows to lower levels of government. 2. The principle that funds from the central budget for specific functions should be transferred directly (without any intermediaries) to the level of government responsible for those functions is not observed in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, the categorical grants for education are determined and negotiated in a very non-transparent way. 3. The Kyrgyz education sector is fragmented, and the divided responsibilities for management and for finances make rationalization and reform very difficult to accomplish. Moreover, the situation is compounded by the fact that education decentralization has a formal character, and is not accompanied by real delegation of authority and responsibility. 4. The general secondary education system in Kyrgyzstan, although managed according to the rules and procedures common to other post Soviet republics, displays a remarkable degree of regional and ethnic differentiation. The financing levels also vary significantly among oblasts. 5. Parental contributions make up at least 30% of the school budgets in Bishkek. Their collection and use vary greatly among schools, but in all cases are beyond the effective control of either parents or the central and local authorities. Moreover, the emerging system of entrance fees for first grade students is unconstitutional and violates human rights and pedagogical principles. In order to deal with these issues, the Kyrgyz Republic needs to correct the present non-transparent and dysfunctional governance structure of Kyrgyz education, because otherwise any efforts to improve the delivery of educational services or their financing may remain ineffective. The Kyrgyz Republic also needs to define education standards that it will be able to enforce and finance in all schools. Finally, it needs to implement a regulatory system governing parental contributions, which would serve the schools and at the same time allow for transparent and well-monitored use of private funds in public schools.

Michael Mertaugh

This article describes problems of education efficiency, finance, and management in the Kyrgyz Republic. It concentrates on the process of decentralization which has been used as a common tactic of central! authorities to offload many fiscal and managerial responsible onto local authorities. It describes how the diversification of finance has created many new problems and new distortions. And it describes the impact on equity from the managerial and governance changes.