The traditional Day of Knowledge – the 1st of September – was marked in Turkmenistan as a double holiday – Day of Knowledge and Student Youth. The reform of the system of education and improving the quality of education are the priority directions of the Turkmen government’s domestic policy and therefore, it is not by chance that this year’s September festivities have acquired truly nationwide scale.

By September 1, dozens of facilities having relation to the national educational reform - kindergartens, schools, higher educational buildings – have already been ready for commissioning. Besides, this year, the unprecedented record number of Turkmen students was sent to foreign universities to study. The branch of I.M.Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas was added to 17 higher educational establishments in the country.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s participation in the opening ceremonies of new educational establishments added special solemnity and significance to the recent September festivities. A number of years ago it was him who proclaimed education the priority of the state policy and since then he oversees all stages of the realization of the national project.

In the morning of September 1, the president had to cut a symbolic ribbon three times opening the entrances of the new educational establishments and to hand over keys to future hosts.

Two new city schools for 600 seats each sprang up in the central part of the Turkmen capital can be referred to the standard type of general secondary educational establishments. Not only has the beauty of white marble constructions, spacious corridors and classrooms mattered here. The considerable portion of funds allocated for the construction of each of schools was spent for equipping them with the state-of-the-art technical devices.

Certainly, these new classrooms have blackboards and chalk, but these traditional attributes of the educational process are not on the first place any more. Full computerization with access to the Internet, interactive boards, specialized cabinets on all subjects, spacious canteens and first-aid posts, sport complexes with the possibility to train children all year round, various halls and studios for the creative after-school occupation are the main distinctive features of the modern comprehensive secondary educational establishment of Turkmenistan.

In fact, a new high standard of conditions for the full-fledge and fruitful pedagogical work is being created in the country today. Addressing to the students in schools, universities and teaching staff on the occasion of the Knowledge Day, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed that the country is interested in raising the highly educated generation who have the supply of high morality, deep knowledge and reliable professional skills. The state does not spare resources for the creation of the necessary educational base, invests millions of dollars in the infrastructure of the national system of education.

Opening of a new building of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Makhtumkuli Turkmen State University served as a vivid confirmation of the above said. The students received laboratories and study rooms of mechanics, molecular, atomic and nuclear physics, electronics and electrical engineering. There is a special technical complex for astronomy classes with the observatory and powerful telescope in the building’s upper floor. In order for students to have strength and physical training to overcome scientific wisdoms, a sport complex with stands for 400 spectators was presented to them.

The national system of higher education is not restricted to the limits of the country. Turkmenistan stands for active international educational integration having cooperative agreements with many countries on training in particular spheres. This year only, 2200 young students from Turkmenistan received an opportunity to get higher education abroad.

It is necessary to note an important role is attached to the Russian higher educational institutions in the national Turkmen educational reform. The reputation of the Russian higher educational training is very high in Turkmenistan. Today, the Turkmen youth studies in the institutes and universities of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Astrakhan, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Belgorod and Irkutsk, Ulyanovsk and a number of other Russian cities. The students are sent to Russia to get professions rare in Turkmenistan – information technologies, some areas of agriculture, architecture and construction, medicine, navigation and fishing, economy and finance.

This year only, 250 young people from Turkmenistan have become the holders of student cards of the Russian universities. In accordance with the existing intergovernmental and interdepartmental agreements they study free of charge there. Much more Turkmen students are sent to Russia with the sponsor support of the relevant Turkmen enterprises using lax credits of the state for getting high education.

Most of the applications to study in the Russian universities relate to the most important fuel and energy sector of the country. Today, specialists for this sector of Turkmenistan are trained in I.M.Gubkin Russian University of Oil and Gas, Tyumen Oil and Gas University, Kazan State Technological University, Ufa State Petrochemical University, Moscow State Mining University. Opening of branches of the biggest Russian higher educational establishments in Turkmenistan will help solve the problem of shortage of qualified specialists in the leading sectors of the national economy. Work in this direction is carried out permanently and the plans of the education systems integration regularly become a topic of discussion at the meetings of the presidents of two counties.

This year, the first branch of one of the leading Russian higher educational establishments opened its doors for the Turkmen students. I.M. Gubkin Russian State Oil and Gas University received one of the buildings of the Turkmen Polytechnic Institute. In a year or two, the branch will commission its own new building. The Honorable guest of the opening ceremony, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Co-Chairman of the permanent Turkmen-Russian Intergovernmental Commission Victor Zubkov assured the first students in it.

Owing to the all possible support of the governments of two countries the idea of opening of the first representation of the Russian higher educational establishment in Ashgabat has been realized in record short time. The day, when the number of the Russian universities’ in Turkmenistan can notably increase, is not far away.