The search for quality: A five country study of national strategies to improve educational quality in Central Asia

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the strategies employed over the last decade by governments of five Central Asia republics-Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan-to raise educational quality at the primary and secondary levels. Data are drawn from a 2002 cross-national study sponsored by the Asian Development Bank that examined recent education reform efforts across these countries. Using a globalization perspective, a comparison of countries on 14 strategies that were most commonly used by these countries suggested that efforts to raise education quality met with mixed results. While raising the quality of education was a popular cause and a safe political goal, it proved to be an elusive target.