Religious affiliation(s) None Founded 1977 | Headmaster Orozgul Sattarova Number of students 1,400 | |
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School type Elementary, secondary, and high school Established 1977; 40 years ago (1977) Similar Yuri Gagarin Secondar, Amir Temur Secondary School, Toktogul Secondary School, Isfana Secondary School, Issyk Kul Secondary School | ||
Alisher Navoiy Secondary School (Uzbek: Alisher Navoiy nomli oʻrta maktab, Алишер Навоий номли ўрта мактаб; Kyrgyz: Алишер Навои атындаги орто мектеби; Russian: Средняя школа имени Алишера Навои) is a secondary school in Isfana, Kyrgyzstan. Although the school is called a secondary school, it offers classes for grades one through eleven. The school has Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian classes.
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The school was established in 1977 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution and was therefore initially called the 60th Anniversary of the October Revolution (Uzbek: Oktabr 60 yilligi, Октябрь 60 йиллиги; Kyrgyz: Октябрь 60 жылдыгы; Russian: 60 лет Октября). After Kyrgyzstan became independent in 1991, the school was renamed Alisher Navoiy Secondary School in honor of the great Turkic poet and statesman Ali-Shir Nava'i. The school has a museum collection containing over 300 artifacts, including a letter by Joseph Stalin and addressed to the people of Isfana.
General framework and curriculum
At Alisher Navoiy Secondary School, children are accepted to first grade at the age of six or seven, depending on the child's individual development. The eleven-year school term is split into elementary (grades 1-4), middle (grades 5-9) and senior (grades 10-11) classes. Attending a "basic" nine-year (elementary and middle) program is compulsory. Grades 10-11 are optional.
As in many parts of the country, at Alisher Navoiy Secondary School children of elementary classes are normally separated from other classes within their own floor of the school building. They are taught, ideally, by a single teacher through all four elementary grades (except for physical education and foreign languages).
Starting from the fifth grade, each academic subject is taught by a dedicated specialty teacher. The school curriculum for senior students includes subjects like mathematics, informatics, physics, chemistry, geography, biology, arts, music, physical education, history, and astronomy. English is taught as a foreign language starting from the fifth grade.
Like many other schools in Kyrgyzstan, Alisher Navoiy Secondary School is a double shift school where two streams of students (morning shift and evening shift) share the same facility. The reason for this is that school capacity is insufficient to teach all of the students on a normal, morning-to-afternoon, schedule.
The school year extends from the beginning of September to the end of May and is divided into four terms. The school curriculum at Alisher Navoiy Secondary School is fixed: unlike in some Western countries, schoolchildren cannot choose what subjects to study. Students are graded on a five-step scale, ranging in practice from 2 ("unacceptable") to 5 ("excellent"); 1 is a rarely used sign of extreme failure. Teachers regularly subdivide these grades (i.e. 4+, 5-) in daily use, but term and year results are graded strictly 2, 3, 4, or 5.
Medium of instruction
There are Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian classes at the school. Like in many other Kyrgyzstani schools with Uzbek-language classes, the future of teaching in Uzbek remains uncertain at Alisher Navoiy Secondary School.
Lately Kyrgyz authorities have been taking measures to remove the Uzbek language from public life and have been pushing to forcibly switch Uzbek schools to Kyrgyz. There are not enough school textbooks in Uzbek and the Kyrgyz government is unwilling provide them, claiming that it does not have enough funds. As Kyrgyz officials strongly oppose the use of textbooks printed in Uzbekistan, currently the majority of Uzbek schoolchildren in Kyrgyzstan study in Uzbek using Kyrgyz textbooks. In addition, in the early 2010s the number of teaching hours allocated to Kyrgyz language and literature lessons at Uzbek schools has been significantly increased at the expense of Uzbek language and literature lessons.
In 2012, local Kyrgyz officials forced the school administration to remove a portrait of Ali-Shir Nava'i, a national hero for Uzbeks, from the lobby of the school. There have also been attempts to rename the school on many occasions, but none has succeeded so far.