ULAANBATAAR: 12th June '04 --  The Don Bosco Technical Skills Centre, just three years into existence, has presented its first students for national exams, particularly for Grade 7 and Grade 9 Leavers.  The term 'leavers' indicates that they were excluded from the general run of students within the system.  DBTSC has brought them 'in from the cold', literally, given daily temperatures in Ulaanbataar!  The results were creditable: 7 out of 11 graduating to Grade 8 and 6 out of 6 from Grade 9 to 10, with a number of 'A's sprinkled amongst them.

 

Mongolia's education system has an interesting recent history.  Within a hundred years it has passed from education given and received only in the context of a Buddhist monastery, to an early Chinese then a long Soviet influence, to the most recent attempts to streamline and reform.  Unlike the international K-12 system, Mongolian education is 4+4 compulsory (4 primary plus 4 secondary) with two further years of upper secondary for those lucky enough.  Ten years, then.  Students do not attend school normally until they turn 8 unless they have a chance for kindergarten.

 

Another part of the context is that of the 2.65 million inhabitants, 34% are under the age of 14.  40% of the population is regarded as living below the official poverty level.  These factors combine to make it difficult for many families to provide the basic education needed for their children, and while certainly things have improved (especially in the capital city) since the early 1990's when the country was changing to a market economy from the old Soviet-based 'command' economy, current drop-out rates are significant enough to warrant real concern.  This is where the Salesians have decided to concentrate their efforts - especially for those who have dropped out of the system altogether.

 

The next step, hopefully, will be to try to do similarly in another and rural part of the nation, near the border with Russia.  If the situation in the capital is worrying for young people, then the rural situation beggars belief.

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