Modernization or eradication of literacy

The quality of secondary and higher education in Dagestan falls every year. Corruption makes education more expensive. Pre-school, school and higher education would cost a total of 20-25 thousand dollars, which is a very big sum for the average Dagestani. Religious schools are an alternative. Their number is growing. According to the religions committee, there were 27 mosques in 1987, the number reached 1,594 in 2001 and in 2010 it reached 2,512. There are 13 Islamic higher education centers, 76 Madrassas and two culture-enlightment centers.

Many Madrassas and higher education centers are free, while their financing remains a mystery. They are built through donations and with the help of businessmen. Financing their construction is semi-legal, which is why there is no exact information on the sources of financing.

There are also religious higher education centers abroad. According to the Interior Ministry, over 1,500 people were studying in them, many of whom were affected ideologically and taught the basics of sabotage, while some were promoting extremist ideas after returning back home.

The Russian authorities have only recently started paying attention to the problem. In 2006 they established a fund to support Islamic culture, science and education and then 5 Islamic university centers. The fund is aimed at supporting traditional Islam in Russia. Moreover, the fund can legalize the huge financial streams from abroad to support Islamic education in Russia.

The situation with secular education is different. The prosecution service of Dagestan has been checking on schools to ensure that they meet the standards of security and readiness for the new school year. They discovered that out of 1,649 schools 253 are in a state of collapse, 252 are in a rundown state (many schools were built in the pre-war or post-war years). 435 schools are in adapted buildings, 33 are in rented buildings and 137 are in pre-fab buildings. The courts have halted the work of many education facilities and the process was called an ‘eradication of illiteracy’.

Obviously, realization of the constitutional right of civilians to free secular education needs to be restored and requires a new material basis. Specialists say that, without solving the education problems, it is impossible to take away the social feeding of terrorism and the recruitment reserves of the underground of the militants. Modernization of secondary education there in the next 10 years is a complex and necessary project. It will require construction of at least 500 modern schools. Federal financing and financing from business are needed. Massive construction will solve the unemployment problem. But such a project does not exist. At the inter-regional conference of the ‘United Russia’ party, Dagestan presented a project to construct a school for 640 students in the village of Utsmiurt in the Babayurtov region. But they discovered that the strategy for the NCFD will need higher-scale and more ingenious projects.

Musa Musayev, exclusively for VK