Rekaya believes in the power of knowledge
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If you stroll in the big market of Osh, it would be possible for Rekaya to catch you and assails you with questions. By walking in the place, Rekaya came naturally to approach us with a disconcerting curiosity and speaking english without any crumbs and smudges. We can spend easily two hours with her, then a half-day in the university to discuss with her students.
"Above all, I love to be with the students. This relation enriches me. During their first year, students are very spontaneous. We created beginners club that allows them to practice their english and to progress faster. My presence in these clubs is voluntary. I am very attentive to the progress and to the preparation of my courses. I try to diversify my educational approaches, and from time to time to invite foreigners to discuss as a supplement of a class. For me, be a professor mean dropping many things and dedicating me to it completely. I would have wanted to be politician, but I am not serious enough and too much a "player" for this !
My biggest challenge is actually to work with the administration of the university. It tends to control and to put pressure on people. It gives more value to the older and more prestigious professors, notably those who are graduated abroad.
Our daily relations are cordial, but I well feel the effect of these power games inside the university.
We spend more energy in these games of domination rather than researching new methods and cooperations between teams and departments. We incite people to be selfish. How can we have more democracy in the university ?
The administration asks the professors to write their courses in advance. I spend 50 % of my time for this ! The system asks the students to pay their academic year according to the number of topics. We manage to put 14 subjects in a half a year as accidentally ! The university suffers from absenteism, the students are not motivated.
I think that it would be necessary to reform the university and to promote its relations with the society, to bring more aptness in curriculum and more democracy in the organisation of the university. If I want to spread this message today, I have to get a position and a prestige which can give me the power to be listened, that is to say to be more qualified and to go to study somewhere else. The education sciences attract me really for my job, and also for the capacity of influence it would give me here. My family does not so understand my choice. It is also a challenge for me to convince them ! In any cases, my life is here. I dream to go to Europe to study and I dream as much to come back in Kyrgyzstan ! ".
NB : Rekaya explained her interest for the Civil Education Project project driven over two years in Osh. She participates also in the meetings of young people organised in the framework of the OSCE (Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe).
