- Kyrgyzstan simplifies licensing for private schools to ease pressure on overcrowded public schools, especially in Bishkek and Osh.
- Cabinet Chairman Adylbek Kasymaliyev cites rapid population growth and triple-shift schedules in schools as drivers for reform.
- With rising demand, 54 new private school licenses have been issued since 2024 to expand access to quality education in urban areas.
The Kyrgyz authorities are enacting efforts to make it easier to license private schools because there is increasingly limited space for students in the nation's public school system, especially in urban areas like Bishkek and Osh.
Cabinet of Ministers Chairman Adylbek Kasymaliyev unveiled a reform program designed to simplify the licensing requirements for private institutions providing primary education. The objective, he said, is to increase access to quality education and reduce the burden on the strained public network of schools.
Kasymaliyev pointed out that high population growth has resulted in gross overcrowding at schools in big cities, where children are taught on three shifts rather than two, with adverse impact on learning.
"Closing the gap in school capacity is a priority for the government" Kasymaliyev said. While new state schools are being built, he made clear that the private sector also had to help respond to increasing demand.
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Now there are 219 private schools operating in Kyrgyzstan, 108 in Bishkek, and 54 in Osh. During 2024, 33 licenses were given to private education providers, and 21 more have been issued since the start of 2025.
"There is good demand from the private sector in the education sphere, especially in big cities, developing actual opportunities for the opening of high-quality private schools is one of our assignments",Kasymaliyev said.
The reform is part of a broader initiative to improve educational access and quality amid demographic expansion and urbanization. Bishkek class sizes are many times larger than they should be, teachers say. "Bishkek's typical class size is 36 to 45 students, while sanitary norm is up to 35", a deputy director at one of the capital's public schools said to The Times of Central Asia. "In top schools, the number is over 50".
