After a 23-year pause, the Mongolian Teachers Conference is being organized. Over this period of time, which is a whole generation from a demographic point of view, Mongolia’s education sector has evolved significantly in its framework, legal environment, structure, and training curricula. Simultaneously, Mongolia’s population has grown to 3.2 million. If we look back, we have changed our law on education 24 times in the last 16 years, which brings the total number of rewritten clauses to 300. It shows how unstable our education policy has been over the years, and prompts us to take a moment to reflect on the past and plan for the future.
Education in Mongolia – in numbers
Secondary education: As of the 2018/2019 academic year, Mongolia has a total of 803 secondary schools, 80 per cent of which are public and the remaining 20 per cent of which are private. High schools comprise 70 per cent of the public secondary schools and 80 per cent of private ones. Approximately 70 per cent of all schools are in regional and rural areas, while 30 per cent are located in the capital city. Given that 45 per cent of Mongolia’s population resides in Ulaanbaatar, schools in the capital city have exceeded their capacity, while schools in the countryside are looking for students. This is why we have 8,451 students studying in triple shifts. They are in 212 classroom groups in 28 schools, 25 of which are in Ulaanbaatar. Out of these students, 85 per cent are in elementary, 12 per cent in middle, and 3 per cent in high school grades. For some reason, the youngest students are the last to get home from school during the day.
This year a total of 600,000 students are studying in secondary schools, while the number was 580,000 last year. Ninety-three per cent of these students go to public schools. One classroom group has 28 students on average, whilst this average rises to 38-54 at 35 secondary schools in Ulaanbaatar and 3 schools in aimags.
Secondary schools employ around 50,000 people in total, 90 of which work in public schools. 30,000 of these employees are teachers, 82 per cent of whom are female. If we look at the teachers, 22,000 have a Bachelor’s degree, 3,000 have a graduate diploma, 4,347 have a Master’s degree, and 19 have a Doctorate / PhD. One-third of all teachers have been teaching for 2-5 years, and 20 per cent for 5-10 years.
Tertiary education: Mongolia currently has a total of 94 tertiary education institutions, 37 per cent of which are universities. In addition to the universities, there are 52 colleges, 7 vocational schools, and 3 branches of foreign institutions. Out of these institutions, there are 14 public universities and 4 public institutes. Eighty-six of all these institutions are located in Ulaanbaatar.
A total of 158,000 students go to these tertiary education institutions, with 56 per cent of them in public institutions, 44 per cent in non-public institutions, and 0.2 per cent in foreign institution branches. If you look at their area of study, 27 per cent are majoring business, management and law, 15 per cent in education, 14 per cent in engineering and manufacturing, 14 per cent in health and social care, and 9 per cent in arts, humanities and other areas.
The tertiary education institutions employ a total of 13,000 people. Approximately 6,700 are teachers / professors, 63 per cent of whom teach at public institutions.
Differences in education, and social division
Nowadays the public and private sectors are working side by side at all levels of education. Twenty per cent of all secondary schools are private, however they account for only 7 per cent of all students and 9 per cent of all teachers. The private sector also comprises 80 per cent of tertiary education schools, 44 per cent of students, and 37 per cent of teachers and professors.
Developing countries generally see more private schools established because the public budget is often not sufficient to meet the demand for education at all levels. In Mongolia, where we see bigger differences between the quality of education at public and private institutions, our society is seeing more division and discrimination. Private schools charge larger tuition fees, therefore they are able to offer higher pay to teachers and a better learning environment to students. Those who can pay are increasingly having their children go to private schools. But both parents and students are growing frustrated, because the cost of going to a private school is increasing every year.
On the other hand, the 2017 Global Human Capital Report, prepared by the World Economic Forum, ranked Mongolia 11th in ‘Capacity’, 49th in ‘Deployment’, and 59th in ‘Development’ of human capital and intellect. In Mongolia, the capacity of human capital is being unlocked by our teachers, especially those who teach at elementary schools. Teachers have always been deeply respected in Mongolian society. Educating our people and enabling them to develop our country and improve livelihoods is made possible because of teachers. However, Mongolia now needs to advance its education system and develop the teachers, in order to effectively respond to scientific and technological revolutions and equip students with the best knowledge and skills.
Education reform
First of all, Mongolia needs urgently to increase the funds spent on education, improve learning facilities at public schools, and increase the base salary of teachers, especially those who teach at elementary classes and preschools.
We need to reinvigorate the policy of regional development, allow more financial authority for regional centers, and establish a place where teachers are trained. Only that way, will we be able to reduce overcentralisation of our population.
Education can remove social disparity and establish balance. Therefore, our policy needs to focus on setting consistent curricula across the country, suspend public budget spending on private schools, and expend the funds on public schools instead, so that schools don’t have to do triple shifts and can eventually do one shift. We can offer incentives to companies, so that they are more likely to invest in secondary school education.
The education institution, which is under the Ministry of Education, should be responsible for making sure that our education policy meets changing circumstances, and that teachers are continuously learning and well trained.
We need to provide students an opportunity to get customised training from their teachers, receive individual advice, and enjoy good facilities, including clean, comfortable learning environments. This also includes facilities designated for teachers to rest and prepare for classes.
We should let kids be kids, avoid putting too much pressure on them, give them fewer classes, stop forcing classes before 9am or after 3pm, assign a teacher or a mentor that can continue helping in the long term, and not let them spend more than 30 minutes on homework or get stressed with grades and tests.
It is also time to give more respect and significance to the hard work teachers do, and make behaviours the start of education. Teachers shouldn’t be competing for what marks their students achieve, but should be given incentives to collaborate with each other and take advantage of online tools and platforms. This will help us to set up a system where teachers are selected competitively.
Finland was successful in implementing these changes, and now they recruit one person out of 10 applicants as a teacher. Finnish students are a global leader in almost all metrics internationally. Finland is now one of the countries with the highest quality of education and one of the least corrupt.
Compared to Mongolia, Finland has a bigger population (by 2 million) and a smaller territory (5 times as small), but their GDP per capita is 50,000 USD, which is 12 times as much as Mongolia’s. Fifty years ago, Finland was a developing country with an economy based on agriculture. Today they are one of the most highly developed countries in the world. Their education system is said to be the underlying factor in this impressive transition.
2019.04.10
Trans. by B.Amar