Contributions of the Gülen Schools in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Sebat International Education Institute has been operating for over 15 years in Sebat, Kyrgyzstan, educating and training the Kyrgyz youth. The institution has won a high reputation for quality education through excellent results, demonstrated by its students' high grades in international and domestic scientific competitions. This paper studies the impact of this institution on values among Kyrgyzstan youth, and compares its educational principles, policies and effects with those of other educational institutions in the city and country.

Introduction

Central Asian countries gained their independence in 1991, and a transition period has started not only in political life but in social, cultural and economic lives as well. As a result of this transition, people needed to re-identify their values. Their values were defi ned under the Soviet System and the result was not so successful. Additionally, there is disunity with Turkic-Islamic values.

Kyrgyz Turkish Schools were opened by Turkish entrepreneurs at that time, and local people met with people who possessed a similar set of values. This closeness resulted in many high schools and universities being established in the region. Sebat International Education Institute (Sebat) is the non-governmental organization founded the Kyrgyz Turkish Schools.

The quality of the education together with positive attitudes of teachers toward the students and parents make these schools very successful. The students learn to speak four languages (English, Russian, Turkish and their local language) as well as computer skills and receive many awards from local and international scientific competitions. These activities improve the quality of their education. In addition, determining the impact of the education given on their social values, democratization and globalization of the Kyrgyz society and country are more difficult to identify.

In this study, the contribution of schools to students' characters with some values such as honesty, tolerance, hard work, responsibility, loyalty, patience, courage, and cooperation between Sebat schools and others is analyzed with the help of a survey instrument that measures values. Also interviews were conducted with students. Data collected from the interviews explores where students see themselves in the global world. Finally, contributions of Sebat to enhance democratization practices of the Kyrgyz society and country will be discussed.

Kyrgyzstan and Turkic World

Kyrgyzstan, formally the Kyrgyz Republic, is located in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is landlocked and very mountainous. It borders China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its capital is Bishkek.

Kyrgyzstan has a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures; Kyrgyz being the majority group. In 1999, the population of Kyrgyzstan was estimated at 64.9% ethnic Kyrgyz, 13.8% Uzbek, and 12.5% Russians. The rest of the population is composed of about ninety other nationalities. The population of the Kyrgyz Republic is estimated at 5,284,149 in July 2007 (CIA Fact Book, 2007).

Kyrgyz is the official language, however, Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. The total number of people speaking the offi cial language fluently currently comprises 70% of the population of the country (compared with 53% in 1989).

The Turkic world can be geographically described parallel to peoples residing in Northern and Central Eurasia who speak languages belonging to the Turkic family and who, in varying degrees, share certain cultural and historical traits. Turkic languages are considered as a subdivision of the Altaic language group, and are one of the most geographically widespread in the world, being spoken in a vast region ranging from Europe to Siberia. And Kyrgyzstan is nearly at the center of the Turkic world.

The Kyrgyz language is a member of Turkic language family. The Soviet experience of Kyrgyzstan and interaction of Turkish people with Western civilization resulted in some cultural and language differentiation between two Turkic nations. For example, Kyrgyz people use the Cyrillic alphabet whereas the Turks use Latin characters. The logic and grammar of the languages are nearly the same.

Kyrgyz civilization had serious contributions to Turkic-Islamic culture. For example, in 1070, Yusuf Khass Khajib Balasaghuni, the author of the Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Royal Glory), explained the philosophy of life and how to administer a country, and Mahmud Kashgari studied Turkic dialects and wrote the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, the Dīwān ul-Lughat al-Turk (Collection of Turkic words) in 1072. These two books are two of the oldest examples of Turkic-Islamic literature.

The dominant religion in the country is Sunni Islam (specifically the Hanafi school) - about 70% as of 1994 like most of other Turkic nations.

Sebat International Institute (SEBAT)

Sebat International Education Institute (Sebat), founder of the Kyrgyz Turkish Schools, is a non-governmental organization that established itself in the Kyrgyz Republic in 1991. Since February 1992, Sebat has opened 14 high schools, 4 university dormitories, the International Ataturk Alatoo University, the International Silk Road School, and the Secom Center for language and computer studies. Till today 60 million US$ has been invested in education by Sebat.

Educational and Administrative Staff Profile^[1]

Nearly all Sebat schools are high schools. In those schools, there are one director and 3 vice-directors. 12 of those directors are Turkish and 4 of them are Kyrgyz. Moreover, there are 27 Turkish vice-directors and 21 Kyrgyz vice-directors. 2 of the Kyrgyz directors and 10 of the Kyrgyz vice-directors were graduated from Sebat schools.

There are 510 teachers working in Sebat schools. 170 of them are Turkish and 340 of them are Kyrgyz (150 of them were graduated from Sebat schools.) In addition, nearly 500 workers are working in these schools and just 10 of them are Turkish.

At International Ataturk Alatoo University there is one Rector and one Vice-Rector (both are Turkish nationals), and one Kyrgyz Vice-Rector as well. All three of the faculty deans are Kyrgyz. There are 3 Kyrgyz and 4 Turkish department heads. 64 of the lecturers are Kyrgyz and 20 of them are Turkish. In the university, there are 46 Kyrgyz and 7 Turkish workers.

Student Selection Process and Student Profile

The significant characteristic of these schools is that they are selecting students through admission tests. There are two-steps in this admission process. In the first step, students take a test to demonstrate their general school knowledge. Approximately 50.000 students enroll annually in this first step. The successful candidates (approximately 10.000) take another test of logic and math's. This is the second step. Students are requested to bring a health report to show that they are physically and mentally healthy to live in a dormitory environment. This system is very objective and there is no corruption.

According to National Statistical Committee (NSC) (1999), the urban/rural population of the country is as 34.8% urban population and 65.2% rural population. The student distribution in Sebat schools is as 51% urban students, and 49% rural students (Ormushev et al. 2007:22). Comparing the education quality of urban/rural areas it is acceptable that rural students do not score as high on admission examinations and also the economic conditions of the rural areas are weaker than the urban areas.

According to Solberg (2006), these schools are perceived as "elite" schools because they are fee-paying private schools, but they are not elite schools. Their admission exams are opened to all and the fees are affordable for people having average income in the country. Also, the previous statistics about urban/rural population verifi es this.

Table 1: Comparative wages of an average employee in Kyrgyzstan and school fees of Sebat in 2007, 1$=37.8KGSom (Source: NSC, NBKR, & Sebat)

Beside this, among 4616 students, 324 students are from crowded families, 34 of them orphans, 204 of them are fatherless, and 47 of them are motherless (Ormushev et al. 2007, p:23).

This system has been providing opportunity to get high quality education for all.

Finally, the national distribution of the students is as follows; 74% Kyrgyz, 13% Russian, 6% Uzbek and 7% others. Comparing the national demographic structure of the country, Kyrgyz student population of Sebat is above the statistical average and Uzbek student population is under the statistical average (NSC, 1999).

Education Style

The main courses are instructed in English. In addition to English; local languages as Kyrgyz and Russian are taught as well as Turkish as a foreign language. By graduation, the majority of students are fluent in all four languages, and are able to use basic computer programs.

Sebat students have also proved their quality education at republic and international and world level olympiads.^[2] As a result of success in international area, the education minister of Kyrgyzstan, Ishengul Bolcurova said that "Kyrgyzstan opened to world in education area with Sebat" (Zaman, 06.08.2002).

Table 2: Number of Scientific Olympiad Degrees at Republic and World and International Levels Earned by Sebat students, 2001-2007 (Source: Sebat)

Sebat students' success has also been improved by close teacher-parent relationships. At Sebat, teachers interact very closely with parents. Sebat schools usually organize 3 teacher-parent meetings a year^[3] and these meetings provide good opportunities to discuss the situation of students in detail and to improve their success at school. In fact, Sebat is encouraging its teachers to perform home-visits as a policy in order to increase quality of education in the schools.

Another thing to see the success of the Sebat Schools is the number of students going abroad for higher studies. In 2006, graduates of Sebat Schools continuing their higher education in 24 different countries. While 1571 graduates (almost 75%) are continuing their university education in Kyrgyzstan, 298 (14%) of them have gone to Turkey for higher studies. Turkey is the top country that has been chosen for higher education because Turkish Government is allocating scholarships. Otherwise this figure might be somewhat smaller. Beside this, 276 graduates of IAAU are working or having graduate education in 16 different countries.

Table 3: Allocation of Sebat High School Graduates that is continuing their higher education into Countries, 1996-2006.

Table 4: Allocation of IAAU Graduates into Countries, 2000-2006 (Source: IAAU Career Development Center, 2007)

The reasons for this success can be explained as follows; Firstly, Sebat Schools are selecting good students through admission examinations. Secondly, most of them are staying at dormitories and studying two hours regularly (10 hours in a week) there under the guidance of their tutors. Also, their teachers come to dormitories in the evenings and help students with their homework. Third, according to Sebat, approximately 50% of the students are preparing for olympiads; they are spending more than 10 hours per week. Further, Sebat is organizing Olympic camps (extensive preparation for olympiads) at the end of each quarters. At these camps, they are studying for more than 10 hours a day for about 15 days, getting 4 hours of lectures and more than 6 hours of individual study.

This type of hard study and preparation for olympiads naturally result in an impressive success.

One activity to develop one's sociability is participation in clubs. Every school has more than 10 clubs. Some clubs are sports, English, math, chess, internet, drama, etc. According to Sebat, the main purpose of the club activities at Sebat Schools is contributing to the positive development of students' character. Clubs are especially contributing to the increased cooperation, responsibility, respect for one another, rights and determination to succeed.

According to Sebat officials, other factors which contribute to student success include low teacher/pupil ratio and relatively high salaries of teachers at these schools. Presently, there are 510 teachers and 4,616 students at Sebat; the teacher/student ration is approximately 1:9.. Also, Sebat officials claim they are paying higher salaries to both foreign and local teachers than Kyrgyzstan standards, resulting in increased teacher performance and higher per student expenditure. Teachers' education and experience levels are also effective on the student performance. As Sebat acknowledges us that they are organizing countrywide teacher meetings once a year. Further, since each Sebat schools has about 300 students, physical facilities like laboratories, computers, etc. are more readily available for students. Above-mentioned factors are increasing student performance at Sebat.

Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is the obligation to make decisions and take actions that will enhance the welfare and interests of society as well as the organization (Daft, 2000:143). And the discretionary responsibility is the organizational responsibility that is voluntary and guided by the organization's desire to make social contributions not mandated by economics, law, or ethics. It is the highest criterion of social responsibility, because it goes beyond societal expectations to contribute to the community's welfare (Daft, 2000:149). All activities of Sebat can be evaluated in this context. Besides educating students, Sebat is organizing and sponsoring a number of activities such as;

• Sponsoring ecology olympiads in the country (Baycigitov N., 2007),
• Distributing meat at the Feast of the Sacrifice to orphanages, hospitals
• Helping victims of disasters like earthquake, torrent, (Toktorov, M. 12.01. 2007)
• Organizing and sponsoring national and international scientifi c conferences,
• Publishing course books and dictionaries in Kyrgyz language,
• Organizing 'days of Kyrgyz Culture' in European countries in order to introduce Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz culture (Sebat web page, 2007),
• Organizing annual businessmen tours to Kyrgyzstan named ''Business Dialog'' in order to attract investment (Zaman, 24 May 2006).

Opinions about Sebat

At a conference at Georgetown University in 2001, Dr. Thomas Michel, S.J. explained his evaluation related to the IAAU and high schools of Sebat as follows;

• These schools were one of the most dynamic and worthwhile educational enterprises that he has encountered in the world today.
• The students had very good English and seemed equally competent in Russian and Turkish, in addition to their native Kyrgyz language.
• Lecturers sought to communicate students with universal values such as honesty, hard work, harmony, and conscientious service.
• Demir et al. (2000) in their study of Kyrgyz Turkish Schools in Kyrgyzstan, conducted interviews with parents, students and teachers of the education institutes and they determined the three major characteristics of Kyrgyz Turkish Schools in the region as follows:
• quality of education which includes positive attitudes of the teachers toward the students and parents
• teaching four languages
• training well-bred individuals
• During the opening ceremony of IAAU Boys Dormitory, President of Kyrgyz Republic, Kurmanbek Bakiyev explained his opinions about the dormitory, IAAU and Sebat are as follows (Zaman, 2006);
• I hope that other education institutes in my country will have beautiful and high quality buildings like this.
• I thank Sebat and sponsors of them because of their assisstance to Kyrgyz Education System.
• With 14 country-wide high schools, IAAU and language center, they are educating and training our children.
• The generation that you educate is the guarantee of our bright future.

Most of graduates of Sebat and IAAU are working in foreign companies in Kyrgyzstan. Those foreign companies prefer to hire them because they have

• Foreign and local language skills in a good way.
• Computer skills.
• Experience with foreign people
• Ability to adopt foreign working styles
• Also in order to determine what makes IAAU different from other higher education institutes in the region, interviews were taken from lecturers. Results of interviews with lecturers are as follows;
• A good infrastucture for education.
• Harmony between administrative staff and academic staff.
• Student oriented education.
• Using Western style.
• Using new technologies, tools and approaches.
• Discipline in education
• Good education system. Parallel to these opinions in 2007, Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev has given "High Honor Degree" to the President of Sebat, Orhan Inandi because of the contributions of Sebat to Kyrgyz education system (Zaman, 24.04.2006). Also, in 2004, ex-president Askar Akayev has given "Dank (high honor) Medal' (second most important medal of Kyrgyz State) (Zaman, 08.10.2004).

Democratisation and Globalisation

Democratization

Democracy is more likely to emerge and consolidate in countries with high levels of education (Papaioannou, E.& Gregorios S., 2006:26). Across the world, the correlation between education and democracy is extremely high. Glaeser et al (2007) found that the correlation coefficient between these variables is 74 percent across 91 countries. And also according to Lipsetp (1959:79), education has a positive effect on humans' outlooks, enables them to understand the need for norms of tolerance, restrains them from adhering to extremist and monistic doctrines, and increases their capacity to make rational electoral choices. By this way, education is supporting the establishment of democracy.

Kyrgyzstan has a high level of education. The contribution of Sebat Schools to Kyrgyz education system is not in quantitative form but in qualitative form. The Sebat Schools are adding value to Kyrgyz education system with its quality education and creating a diversification in the system.

Schools prepare people for participation in the economy and polity, giving them the knowledge to make responsible judgments, the motivation to make appropriate contributions to the well being of society, and a consciousness about the consequences of their behavior (Epstein E. H., 2007). Parallel to this opinion, in education system of Kyrgyzstan, there are elected class and school presidents. In actuality, they they are seen as an assistant to the teachers. But in Sebat Schools, the system of class and school presidency seen as a part of education system to teach democracy, to improve responsibility and leadership skills of students, and a communication channel between students, teachers and administration.

In the education system of Sebat Schools, students nearly spend all their time together. They are having lessons in the day and living in the dormitories in the evenings for fi ve years. Also as a result of ethnic structure of Kyrgyzstan, the students have different backgrounds. In this way, during the school years students learn the norms of tolerance.

Globalization

Today, as a result of developments in communication, and transportation we are living in a global village. But in order to maneuver throughout the global network, it is essential that students know how to use the internet efficiency and speak English. The signifi cant differences of the Sebat schools are teaching these tools in a good way. Beside these, students improve their local language skills as Kyrgyz and Russian and learn Turkish.

The students of Sebat schools have lots of Turkish teachers and some from other nations. The diversity of the teachers enhances the students' ability to take their first steps towards a more global environment. Further, they meet with people from other parts of the world who have different histories, habits, languages and behaviors.

Also, students attend different programs in other parts of the world. For example, students attended 'Kyrgyz Culture Days' in European countries several times, and they are attending international Olympiads in different countries.

Beside these contributions to democratization and globalization, Sebat has contributions to establish a well educated staffs for the country. Perhaps this is the most important plus on the state perspective. Before gaining independence, Kyrgyzstan was dependent on skilled workers which were mostly among Russian-speaking minorities, mainly Germans, Russians, and Ukrainians (Mamedov N., 2005:52). In 1980 just 13% of the republic's engineers and technicians were Kyrgyz (Mamedov N., 2005:77). Following independence, huge numbers of Russian speaking minorities began to migrate to Russia. This resulted huge decreases in GDP of the country and created new problems throughout the country as a whole. The country had to educate technical and professional staffs. Some government programmes like Cadry XXI.veka started in order to solve this problem. With the efforts of Sebat, they are hiring qualified administrators and teachers from the country. .

Literature Review

There are certain studies focuses on the Turkish private schools in Central Asia and Kyrgyzstan. For example Demir et al 2000, analyzed the roles of Kyrgyz Turkish Schools in Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan; At a conference at Georgetown University in 2001, Dr. Thomas Michel, S.J. explained his evaluation related to the IAAU and high schools of Sebat and then this proceeding was published by Yavuz H.M. & Esposito J.L. 2003. The book named "Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gülen" gives examples of interviews with staff of Turkish Schools in different parts of the world including Kyrgyzstan. Also "Barış Köprüleri/ Dünyaya Açılan Türk Okulları", Ortaylı et al. 2005, contains opinions of Turkish writers on Kyrgyz Turkish Schools.

"Sebat" Bilim Beruu Uyasi written by Ormushev A., Inandi O. & Asan uulu T. (2007) in Kyrgyz, gives a brief history of Kyrgyz Turkish Schools in Kyrgystan. Sagbansua, L.& Keles, I. (2006), "Turkish Higher Education Experience in Central Asia: Managerial and Educational Features of IAAU" illustrates the educational and managerial aspects of the Sebat's university, IAAU.

Methodology

In this study, the importance of values such as honesty, tolerance, hard work, responsibility, loyalty, patience, courage, and cooperation between students of Sebat schools and others is analyzed with the help of a survey instrument. The survey consists of two sections. The first section is mostly based on the survey of World Values Survey. The second section of the survey consists of questions identifying demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the respondents.

The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global network of social scientists who have surveyed the basic values and beliefs of the publics of more than 80 societies, on all six inhabited continents. The WVS is a tool to analyze socio-cultural and political change in a worldwide perspective. It was firstly prepared by the European Values Survey group (EVS) under the leadership of Jan Kerkhofs and Ruud de Moor in 1981. Until today, a total of four waves of the survey have been carried out. The WVS has given rise to more than 400 publications in more than 20 languages (World Values Survey, 2007).

In this study, students of Sebat schools are named as "Sebat". And all other students are named as "others". The data for this study was collected in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan during the September 2007. Table 13 shows demographic characteristics of the attended students to the survey. Dependent variable of the study is the "students' values" and independent variable of the study is being a graduate student of Sebat schools.

Before starting to survey process, a pre-test of the survey will be done with a small group of students in both groups. By this pre-test process, it is aimed to measure the reliability of the survey and also to check whether the conductors understand the process or not.

In total, there are 8 groups of questions for identifying values and 4 questions for identifying demographic and socio-economic characteristics in the survey.

The survey group consisted of freshmen students at the International Atatürk Alatoo University. %51 of those students are graduted from Sebat schools and %49 of them are graduated from other schools of Kyrgyzstan. At the first day of the school, the survey was done in class environments with the supervisory of lecturers. The surveys distributed to students and approximately in twenty minutes they gave surveys back. 449 surveys were distributed, yet due to incompleteness, only 428 usable questionnaires were obtained.

Results

Culture provides a general set of objectives for members to develop their personal goals and ambitions. Values are these shared concepts of what is considered good, pleasing, and appropriate in culture that indicate what people in a given culture prefer as well as what they find important and morally right. They influence people's behavior and provide as criteria for valuating the others' actions (Schaefer R.T. & Lamm R.P.p:80-81). In this part the survey results will be used to analyze if there is a difference between Sebat students and others on perception of social values.

Firstly, as a result of education, some changes occur on characteristics of the students. It is asked how their schools affect their personal characteristics. A three-point Likert scale was used, "1" being "none" and "3" being "much."

Table 5: How Students Think Their Schools Contribute to Improving Their Characters.

This part of the survey shows the efforts of schools to contribute their students characters. As the nature of education or being a teacher, it is aimed the improve students characteristics. Students of both types of schools said that their schools have contribution to their characteristics. When we compare the results of the survey, the students of Sebat reported higher degree of contribution to their characteristics. The result of this part of the survey means that Sebat schools are spending much more effort to student characteristics improvement comparing to other schools. Beside this, just for the `self-esteem` part of the survey students of Sebat given a lower score that the other students.

Another finding in this part of the survey is, the importance of characteristics for the schools. If students reported higher degree of contribution to their character, it means their school spend more effort and give more importance. The survey resulted that the key characters focused by Sebat are honesty, respect, loyalty, responsibility, cooperation and tolerance. The lowest score was given to 'self-esteem' in Sebat schools. Perhaps, the importance given on 'cooperation' shadows the 'self-esteem'.

Table 6: Rating of Characters by Schools In the second part of the survey, it was asked to tell the importance of their family, friends, 372 | P a g e

religion, leisure time, and politics. A four-point Likert scale was used, "1" giving "not at all important" and "4" giving "very important."

Table 7: Importance of some Indicators in their Daily Life

The sequence of importance of indicators are paralel in each of the groups. The most important indicator is the family, and then friends, religion, leisure time and politics. For the first four indicators both Sebat girls and boys rated more importance than the other school students but for the politics girls rated a similer degree liked the other girls. On the contrary Sebat boys showed a very low degree of importance for the politics. Also, there is a significant difference in giving importance for leisure time among Sebat boys and other boys. Sebat boys are giving too much importance on their leisure time.

In the third part, the participants rated the importance of following sentences on a four-point Likert scale was used, "1" giving "not at all important" and "4" giving "very important."

Table 8: Importance of some situations

The third part indicates that being well off financially and to help others in difficulty are very important for both groups of students but the Sebat students rated `to help others in difficulty` more important and 'be financially well off' less important than the others.

There are some differences among Sebat students for the ratings of developing a meaningful philosophy of life and influence social values. The Sebat girls rated highest degree of importance in groups and the Sebat boys rated lowest degree of importance. And also it is similar for the `influence social values'.

In the fourth part, it was asked to tell opinions for each of the following actions related to corruption whether it can always be justified, never be justified, or something in between. A three-point Likert scale was used, "1" being "justify" and "3" being "not justify."

Table 9: Sensitivity in corruption

Both student groups are very sensitive in corruption related issues. Perhaps as a result of the coutry agenda, the survey resulted in this way.

In the fifth part, it was asked to tell each of the following actions whether it can always be justified, never be justified, or something in between. A three-point Likert scale was used, "1" being "justify" and "3" being "not justify."

Table 10: Justification of some situations

The survey showed that the Sebat students rated more negative opinion on abortion, divorce and polygamy. Also other school students expressed negative opinions about those issues but not as much as Sebat students. For euthanasia and suicide, both boy groups rated less negative opinions but considering all the groups, the Sebat girls rated the highest degree of negative opinion and the Sebat boys rated the lowest degree of negative opinion on those issues.

People have different views about themselves and how they relate to the world. It is asked to tell how strongly they agree or disagree with each of the following statements about them. A four-point Likert scale was used, "1" being "Strongly disagree" and "4" being "strongly agree."

Table 10: Identification of their identities

The Sebat/Other girls table show that there are differences in state of belonging to local community, Kyrgyz nation and Eurasia. It can be said that the Sebat girls' degree of state of belonging to world is as much as other girls (the Sebat girls also have a higher degree in world citizen). The Sebat/Other boys table show that there are differences in state of belonging to in all groups.

At the eighth part it is asked how proud they are to be Kyrgyz. A four-point Likert scale was used, "4" being "very proud" and "1" being "not at all proud."

Table 11: Proud of being Kyrgyz citizen

The results show that both Sebat girls and boys are more proud of being Kyrgyz. And lastly, what language they normally speak at home was asked.

Table 12: Language at home, %

Language at home also approves the previous findings as proud of being Kyrgyz.

Future Research Avenues

The data presented here are static and limited in nature. Here, the perception and opinions of students collected and presented. Therefore, wider researches may be useful for identifying the effects of these schools in daily life. This study shows that Sebat schools are giving more importance on such characters as honesty, respect, loyalty, responsibility, cooperation and tolerance. In order to identify whether they are successful or not some studies must be done. For example a study to identify profile of prisoners in Kyrgyzstan may show this.

Another research area may be the families established by Sebat graduates. This study shows that they are giving more importance on family and have more negative opinions on divorce. A new study to test hypothesis may be done. Also there are some couples as a Sebat graduate and an other school graduate. The effects of Sebat schools on values may be better understand with a research focus on those families.

Conclusions

The Sebat schools have been operating in all regions of Kyrgyzstan for more than 15 years. As a result of their activities, thousands of Kyrgyz students have received a higher quality education. The schools' success in scientific competitions in domestic and international area results a good reputation in the country. Beside this, Sebat schools spend too much effort to develop students' characters.

The education given in those schools support the democratization and globalization of the country. The students meet with democratic practices in their early years and also meet with the global world by having foreign teachers (mainly Turkish), using internet, learning foreign languages and attending scientific olympiads in international area.

Finally, Sebat schools' contributions to students are good education and manner and to Kyrgyzstan are well educated and loyal citizens.

Appendices

Table 13: Demographic Characteristics of the Attended Students

Table 14: Sample Size Calculations for Sebat Students (CRS, 2007)

Table 15: Sample Size Calculations for Other Students (CRS, 2007)

[1] Sebat keeps staff records depending on their citizenship. Here, citizens of Turkey are named as Turkish and Kyrgyzstan citizens are named as Kyrgyz that comprises Russian, Uzbek, Korean, Ethnic Turkish ethnic groups.
[2] World scientific Olympiads are those organized regularly by UNESCO. International Olympiads are those, which are organized by a foundation, a country, etc. For example, Mathematics Project Competition organized in Kazakhstan by KATEV and DARIN is this type of Olympiad.
[3] These meeting are generally visit-at-home type. Actually, Sebat is encouraging teachers to visit parents at home in order to see home environment.

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