Organizing, offering and conducting citizenship education courses is one of the main activities of KAEA. In 2021, DVV International supported 12 courses on various popular topics. Approximately one third of these courses have since been duplicated with the support of other partners or with self-financing the Adult Training Centres themselves. These are such courses as "Electronic appeal to tax authorities", "Functional duties of deputies of local districts". One of the courses was devoted to "Providing legal and other assistance in documenting", and after the success of the course, this topic was offered as a mandatory course for students of 11 grades of secondary schools and their parents.
The statistics of students by gender shows that every 5th course participant is a man, and all the rest are women (36 men, 147 women). This indicates that women are more active in rural areas than men. Taking into account the fact that the topics of civil courses are mainly of a social nature, accordingly, more women are involved in these training activities.
Leaving from the pandemic, the acquisition of new skills for sustaining a similar virus, as well as social isolation has allowed many residents to reconsider their values. Citizens have began to treat finances differently, form and plan family budgets, create a "safety cushion" in case of income shortages. To date, the course on "Financial Literacy" is still the most popular one. Many development partners implement, support and promote this course.
The adoption of the new Tax Code in the Kyrgyz Republic in January 2022, as well as digitalization processes - generate demand for such courses as "Electronic application to the tax authorities" and the "Use of cash registers".
Members of KAEA - Adult Training Centres offer Citizenship Education courses on various topics. Some of these courses have been developed with the support and funding of other development partners. Subjects of the courses are aimed at the elimination of violence, peacebuilding, gender equality, biodiversity conservation. Taking into account current trends, private entrepreneurs, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as active citizens are ready to invest in education and self-development. This increases the demand for courses for which applicants are willing to pay for themselves.
Thus, with the support of the crisis center "Altynay" the training center "Uspeh" conducted trainings on the topic "We are against violence." For three years, the Public Fund "Mugalim" has been conducting trainings according to the GALS methodology (GALS, Gender Action Learning System) on relationships between parents and children (communication culture, improving relations between parents and children).
The Chui Regional Center for Development and Training plans to conduct a course on "Workplace harassment, a special form of violence" with the support of the UN Women-Initiative "Ray of Light" for 100 women. Also for the current year, the Training Centre of KAEA plans to organise courses on "Financial literacy", "Project development, business planning", "Building relationships between generations, forming values" in cooperation with other partners .
In general, it should be noted that the members of KAEA have a large trainer' staff and potential for the development and implementation of courses on new topics.
A particular demand was identified for such topics as:
- “Prevention and rehabilitation of the population after COVID-19”
- “Hygiene and healthy lifestyle”
- “Prevention of family violence”
- “Healthy diet”
- “Waste management”
- “Sustainable development” and other topics on environmental protection.
Currently, negotiations are underway with the state enterprise "Infocom" on organising training courses on electronic document management .
Karagul kyzy Cholpon
Executive Director of Kyrgyz Adult Education Association
Contact details of the KAEA:
Tel.: +996 552 925 125, +996 312 613 711
У-mail.: kaea.kg@gmail.com