The second International Conference organized by Taalim-Forum, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, was attended by more than 120 participants, 20 speakers and about 50 partner organizations from four Central Asian countries. Speakers and participants were represented by government officials from the ministries of education of the Kyrgyz Republic and Mongolia, relevant departments implementing digital transformation strategies in school education, NGOs, private and international organizations, as well as educational institutions in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan.
The three-day program, dedicated to educational strategies and innovations in the field of digitalization in education, included a keynote lecture by Dr. Sabzalieva from McGill University (Canada), thematic plenary sessions, a breakout session and a meeting on the exchange of knowledge and experience. Plenary sessions focused on digital transformation strategies in school education, digital innovation, solutions and pedagogy to promote gender equality and inclusion. The session, led by the Consortium's research team, presented the results of research conducted from May 2021 to June 2023 as part of the project. At the breakout meeting, the ideas discussed were summed up and the most important needs and solutions on the actualized topics were highlighted.
The knowledge and experience sharing meeting brought together key stakeholders and partners from Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Kazakhstan to exchange knowledge and experience in implementing digital transformation programs. Lira Samykbaeva, a member of the Expert Council on Digitalization under the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan, noted Mongolia’s experience in reducing bureaucracy through the use of digital approaches, in reforming the teacher professional development system, which now provides online training based on student performance. The experience of Kazakh colleagues in developing public-private partnerships in developing educational digital resources is a valuable model to learn for Kyrgyzstan. The expert highlighted the important findings of the conducted research demonstrating that providing access to the Internet and technology in distance education were not enough and ineffective without consistent methodological support and teachers’ training on learning new skills.
