Absent were only the Turkmen girls. During his meeting with education officials in late July, Niyazov reproved them for their poor knowledge of the Turkmen language. As a remedy, he closed the Department of Turkmen Language and Literature at the Institute of World Languages in Ashgabat, and insisted that languages should not be taught in secondary schools. An absolute majority of Turkmen families have little, or nonexistent, incomes. Some children do not attend school because of a lack of clothing.
Many schools are run-down and demand renovation.
Yet, any work in these areas must be done by teachers and students themselves in most such cases, the government stays uninvolved and gives no assistance. Meanwhile, nothing is free. In reality, young people pay thousands of dollars in bribes for a chance to study. Moreover, all applicants will have to undergo a genealogical background check three generations back. All of this appears to mean that the tuition fees will go up and the number of students will continue to decline.