Education in Mongolia
However, the move to democracy and free markets in the 1990s has had some negative impacts on education in Mongolia, though these setbacks have been ameliorated some by an improving economy and policy reforms.
Many adults benefit from the non-formal distance education programmes sponsored by the government in conjunction with foreign NGOs.
[1] The report, which was launched to commemorate IYV+10 (10th Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers), showed that there were numerous opportunities presented by the high level of economic growth, which has brought more resources into the sector.
However, it showed that as Mongolia emerges onto the world stage, the disparity between rich and poor could leave many marginalized when it comes to benefiting from education.
This was particularly noted in accommodating for Mongolia's unique country characteristics such as the nomadic lifestyle, low population density in remote areas, and striving toward meeting international standards.
The system for lower-level education in Mongolia has been similar to the one used during communist times, though the government has begun reforms to expand it.
As a result, numerous public and private schools have been established, offering Cambridge Pathway (Primary, Checkpoint, IGCSE, AS and A levels).
Currently, there are three public schools with Cambridge programs, providing the opportunity for students nationwide to access international education while experimenting with and implementing the reform.
Higher education in Mongolia came with the communist revolution in the early 20th century and was based on a Soviet model.
In early 1989, the education authorities announced that third-year and fourth-year engineering students would be told which enterprise they would be assigned to after graduation, so that their training could be focused on practical ends in mind.
The increasing importance of the Internet in research and global academic exchanges has pushed more scholars to favor English over the language that used to dominate Mongolia's academia, Russian.
Chinggis Khaan summoned scholars to The Council of Sages, highly respected helping run the state and domestic and foreign policies.
The focus of these distance education programs is on rural populations that need more skills than their urban counterparts.
Classes ranging from wool production to cooking to saddle-making are taught as ways to help rural people improve skills and possibly generate income.
Likewise, basic business classes on production, accounting, and marketing are taught to improve rural residents' financial situation.
[12] Gobi Nomadic Women's Project Education in Mongolia traditionally was controlled by the Buddhist monasteries and was limited to monks.
Higher-level education was available in the major monasteries, and often many years were required to complete formal degrees, which included training in logic and debate.
Major monasteries supported four colleges: philosophy, doctrine, and protocol; medicine; mathematics, astrology, and divination; and demonology and demon suppression.
Government offices operated informal apprenticeships that taught the intricacies of written records, standard forms, and accounting.
Official Mongolian sources, which tended to depict the prerevolutionary period as one of total backwardness, probably underestimated the level of literacy, but it was undoubtedly low.
The earliest example of public education in Mongolia is a secular school set up by the Buddhist monk and poet Dazan Ravjaa at the Khamar Monastery in the 1820s.
A Mongol-language school under Russian auspices opened in Yihe Huree in 1912; much of the teaching of the 47 pupils was done by Buryat Mongols from Siberia.
A Russian-owned printing shop, opened in Yihe Huree in the early twentieth century, turned out Mongolian translations of Russian novels and political tracts; in 1915 it printed Mongolia's first newspaper, Niysleliyn Hureeniy Sonon Bichig (News of the Capital Huree).
[15] For comparison, the World Bank, which supports the above figure, puts Mongolia’s more prosperous neighbor China’s literacy rate at 91%.
[16] Mongolia benefited from compulsory primary education under the communist regime in the 20th century, continuing in a similar form today.
[18] The Mongolian government's non-formal distance education programs also provide opportunities for citizens to learn to read and write.
After the communist regime stepped down and free markets were introduced, the Mongolian education system was reformed through decentralization and handing control over to local provincial governments.
[25] This situation changed when the privatization of herds and the economic downturn of the 1990s put pressure on the financial stability of families and strained school budgets.
Fortunately, primary education in Mongolia has largely rebounded and school dropout rates are decreasing.
However, the quick growth of dropouts during the economically turbulent 1990s illustrates how fragile access to education can be in Mongolia.
