DUSHANBE, June 10, Asia-Plus — Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov will attend the Central Asian education ministers’ meeting that will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from June 12-13.
According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), the meeting aims to discuss issues related to creating the Central Asian higher education area is supposed to end with signing of a memorandum on joining the Bologna Process.
“Joining the Bologna Process means that our diplomas will be recognized by international community,” the source at a MoE said, noting that the memorandum will be singed by education ministers of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The purpose of the Bologna process (or Bologna accords) is to create the European higher education area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. It is named after the place it was proposed, the University of Bologna, with the signing in 1999 of the Bologna declaration by education ministers from 29 European countries in the Italian city of Bologna. This was opened up to other countries signatory to the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe, and further governmental meetings have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003), Bergen (2005) and London in spring 2007.
While Kyrgyzstan ratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention in 2004, it is not a State party to the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe, and there is – as far as is known – no consideration of expanding the geographical scope of this Convention. It therefore seems clear that Kyrgyzstan is not eligible to join the Bologna Process under the criteria defined in Berlin.
