In the previous few months, Mongolia has skilled intermittent strikes by each academics and medical staff, demanding a pay elevate and the allocation of monetary sources from the state price range. The academics’ strike, particularly, sparked a debate over Mongolia’s training sector at massive relating to unequal entry to and high quality of training in rural and concrete areas.
A typical tutorial yr begins on September 1 in Mongolia. This yr, nevertheless, even earlier than the beginning of college yr, public faculty academics threatened to strike if their wages weren’t elevated. Between the months of September and October, Mongolia’s Training and Science Commerce Union mobilized round 30,000 academics and staff of 720 training organizations for a three-week employee’s strike, pressuring the federal government for greater wages.
The academics’ strike couldn’t have come at a worst time both, as political rivalries encircled the ruling get together, the Mongolian Folks’s Celebration (MPP), virtually ousting one other authorities. However what was extra vital to academics and training advocates on the time was that regardless of the change of governments, monetary sources for the training sector should be included within the state price range.
Public faculty academics throughout Ulaanbaatar and a few distant areas demanded that the federal government elevate their wage to 2.8 million tugrik (round $780) a month. In response, Minister of Training Naranbayar Purevsuren rejected the strike, calling it unlawful and never conducive towards constructive adjustments within the system. The academics and union supporters then referred to as for his resignation.
Ex-Minister of Training Enkh-Amgalan Luvsantseren, defending his time within the submit, highlighted that in the course of the Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai authorities, instructor’s salaries have been raised from 787,000 to 1,484.000 tugrik. Regardless of these will increase, the Mongolian public confirmed help for the academics, viewing their demand as reliable.
To keep away from additional disruptions to the college yr, Mongolia’s Prime Minister Zandanshatar Gombojav responded, promising a 20 p.c improve in educator’s salaries. Transferring ahead, the Mongolian authorities is planning to extend the wage of academics by 76 p.c in two phases, starting on January 1, 2026.
The social unrest in September and October highlights a deeper conundrum in Mongolia’s training sector. Really fixing the system would require fixing training inequality, lowering disparities between private and non-private training, and allocating a sustainable monetary sources in public training.
In keeping with a number of studies from the Ministry of Training, in 2024, a complete of 855 colleges have been registered, of which 705 are public (79.7 p.c) and 180 are personal colleges. The report additionally indicated that 726,175 college students are enrolled in public colleges, and 76,152 college students are in personal colleges. Based mostly on these numbers alone, it’s clear that almost all of Mongolian college students rely on public colleges – and public faculty academics. But these colleges are beneath pressure, with rising class sizes in city areas.
In 2007, the Mongolian authorities standardized the category measurement as public colleges 32-35 college students. Regardless of the decision, amid the inflow of migration from rural areas to Ulaanbaatar, the capital, class sizes have ballooned.
In Ulaanbaatar, academics are working with a median of 50-60 college students per class, with bigger courses compelled to be divided in two sections. Public colleges in Sukhbaatar, Khan-Uul, and Chingeltei districts are recognized to have the most important school rooms.
Naranbayar, the training minister, advised the press, “There are 8,028 courses with greater than 35 college students. In such a case, it’s troublesome to speak in regards to the high quality of training. For the time being, it’s advisable to extend the instructor’s wage.”
Through the newest dialogue of the state price range, a public official from the Ulaanbaatar mayor’s workplace, Amartuvshin Amgalanbayar, criticized the federal government’s unequal distribution of monetary sources. He highlighted that the brand new state price range consists of constructing “13 colleges in Arkhangai, 18 in Khuvsgul, 9 colleges in Tuv aimag, and 10 colleges in Uvurkhangai.” He careworn that extra funds ought to go to assemble new colleges in Ulaanbaatar, with its inhabitants of 1.6 million individuals and sophistication sizes of as much as 60 college students.
In distinction, personal colleges have a lot smaller courses, therefore, decrease student-teacher ratio and better training high quality. And this results in one other problem in Mongolia’s training system: training inequality, each between private and non-private colleges and between city and rural areas.
One of many most important challenges for each college students and academics from rural areas is the twelfth graduate Common Entrance Examination, which is requited to enter college in Mongolia. With restricted sources and entry to international language coaching, academics in rural areas usually fall quick on international language competencies, compared to Ulaanbaatar-based educators. On the opposite excessive, personal colleges in city areas have the posh of hiring well-educated, well-trained academics and personal tutors to organize college students for exams similar to IELTS and TOEFL.
The mix of those inequalities can hinder college students’ capability to organize for such exams, not to mention to compete for scholarships and grants. Such unequal entry to training in each rural and concrete areas leaves weak college students at a aggressive drawback.
For instance, a 2024 Common Entrance Examination statistical report confirmed that, on common, examinees from a provincial heart scored 503 on the English language scale, whereas examinees from a soum (sub-provincial) heart scored 470. Examinees from Ulaanbaatar metropolis, in the meantime, scored 514 on common.
All these parts have contributed to the inequality of training entry, furthering the divide between haves and have-nots in Mongolian society as an entire.
In help of enhancing English-language capabilities, in 2021, the Mongolian parliament adopted the Decision on the Actions to Promote English Language Studying for All (2022-2025). On the federal government’s half, this was an try to take away disparities between rural and concrete training, notably for the instructing of English as a second language.
Mongolia’s worldwide companions have been advocating for equal training and rising entry to greater training. The U.Okay. Embassy in Mongolia, for instance, funded a 2025 UNICEF venture to enhance rural space academics’ and college students’ English language abilities, which was carried out in Bayan-Ulgii province.
Given the continuing disaster in Mongolia’s training sector, the Mongolian legislature is trying into discovering an actionable answer to this advanced challenge. But the federal government is a part of the issue. Training insurance policies have been consistently altering within the final 30 years. The inconsistency and fluctuations in training curricula, laws, and necessities weakened implementation and helped exacerbate training inequality between rural and concrete, personal and public colleges.
One of many points beneath new scrutiny is whether or not personal training establishments ought to obtain public help. Tax break and monetary sources for personal colleges had been included in earlier state budgets. Public opinion is sharply in opposition to this, with critics arguing that non-public colleges mustn’t profit from tax aid since most of them are profit-seeking establishments. Critics additionally warn that giving monetary breaks to personal colleges might deepen academic disparities and weaken public faculty methods. Mongolian legislators are at present debating the problem.
Final yr, Mongolia’s parliament accredited the “Authorities Motion Program for 2024-2028,” which listed “Reform of the Training Sector” as one of many precedence areas. The Motion Program consists of a formidable listing of 40 initiatives to be carried out inside a framework of 4 most important objectives: educating educated and competent specialists, advancing digital training, offering equal, accessible and high quality training; and strengthening instructing and human sources.
The proposed training framework features a deal with strengthening cooperation in English language, coding, robotics, and synthetic intelligence abilities growth programs. If carried out effectively, these programs shall be launched as early as third grade.
In the long run, the promised wage will increase alone aren’t sufficient to attain this formidable imaginative and prescient. The Ministry of Training might want to implement actionable measures geared toward lowering the workload by altering the construction and group of basic training colleges to scale back the variety of college students per instructor. If these points are left unresolved, Mongolia’s training inequality will proceed to widen, which is able to impression the nation’s human capital.
