Kyrgyzstan is a multilingual and multi-ethnic country. The Constitution recognizes Russian as the official language of the country, Kyrgyz as the official language of the state and ensures the preservation and development of the minority languages.However, education in Kyrgyzstan is almost exclusively monolingual. Creating a linguistically inclusive education system according to the country’s plural reality is therefore a priority for democratic consolidation and political stability in Kyrgyzstan.
The Club de Madrid, as part of the project INSPIRED (November 27-29), is participating in a work session in Bishkek with a large group of representatives of civil society. With the presence of the Education Minister, Sadykov, they will work to facilitate a dialogue whose results will provide Kirguistanís authorities input in the construction of a multilingual education system. In a later meeting with the international community they identified synergies with initiatives currently underway.
The Club de Madrid is one of the three organizations at the forefront of INSPIRED, an EU-funded initiative which also includes the European Partnership for Democracy and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. This initiative takes place in five countries that are in the process of consolidating democracy (Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan) and their main objective is to support inclusive dialogue for creating a consensus to enable civil society to inform the development of policies on specific issues in each of the five action (Creating a linguistically inclusive education system in Kyrgyzstan). INSPIRED works closely with local authorities in each of the five countries, and are true owners of the process. The Center for Inclusive Social Policy is their local partner. This was the first initiative of the project in Kyrgyzstan. The presence of the Club de Madrid in the country continues a previous project and builds on the tools developed by the Shared Societies Project.