Bağımsızlık Yıllarında Kırgızistan Okullarında Din Dersi Denemeleri ve Son Dönemdeki Gelişmeler
Attempts to Introduce Religion Courses in Schools of Kyrgyzstan in the Years of Independence and Latest Developments

Summary/Abstract: Kyrgyzstan is a Central Asian country that became independent on August 31, 1991. From this date, religion-state relations in the country have entered into a phase of restructuring. With independence, there have been an awareness of historical identity, religious beliefs, customs and traditions among Kyrgyz people. On the one hand, new concepts such as secularism and freedom of religion and conscience have begun to be used actively in the country, and on the other hand, the legitimacy of religious education in formal education institutions have begun to be discussed frequently by academics and politicians. Today we can see some developments in formal religious education in Kyrgyzstan. Especially, there have been several attemts of teaching religion courses at public schools of Kyrgyzstan. So in this article, religion courses in public schools of Kyrgyzstan are examined. In particular, the “Iyman” course, which was taught during the first years of independence and the “Adep” course which was introduced as a compulsory subject in public schools in 2004, were analysed in terms of purpose and content. In addition, the "History of Religious Culture" course, which has been taught as a pilot project since the 2016-2017 academic year, is analyzed in terms of purpose, content, course teacher and time allocated to the course.

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