Within the framework of the Innovation and Information Centre of the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan, founded by the Decree of the President of Turkmenistan in January 2020, the Korean Information Centre functions to promote the technological and innovative development of the educational system of Turkmenistan, improve digital educational services, increase literacy in web design and programming, provide access to the Internet and electronic educational resources.
The functions of the center are defined in the agreement between the Innovation and Information Centre of the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan and the National News Agency of the Republic of Korea. In accordance with them, the centre conducts classes free of charge for children with disabilities twice a week, as well as free classes for older listeners (pensioners); provides the Internet for use by everyone; periodically holds events to familiarize the local population with Korean culture and language.
Since the main goals of the Innovation and Information Centre of the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan and the Korean Information Centre are largely similar, their joint work complements each other. The structure of the Korean Information Centre includes the department for education and the department for ensuring free access to the Internet.
As the chief administrator of the Korean Information Centre Amanbibi Hudaygulyyeva said, at present, training is being conducted in the field of IT technologies and language courses are being organized in Korean, English, Russian and Persian. In 2022, about 1,000 students of different ages were trained at the center, and at present, the center has 23 teachers in various subjects.
The courses on IT technologies are taught by teachers of higher educational institutions, which directly contributes to the digitalization in the education sector of Turkmenistan. For example, courses on «AR, VR technologies» increase the competence of teachers in the field of modern and innovative ways of teaching students and high school students. In these courses, they learn how to create virtual laboratories in the subjects they teach themselves. By maintaining feedback with their students, the teachers of the centre are interested in how these courses help them in their work and in many cases receive good reviews.
Speaking about the long-term plans of the Korean Information Centre, Amanbibi Hudaygulyyeva noted that such measures as inviting Korean specialists in the field of IT technologies for temporary teaching at the centre and sending the centre's specialists to advanced training courses in the Republic of Korea can increase the efficiency of its work. Increasing the number of subjects in the Korea Information Centre will help attract more students to the courses. It is also planned to increase the number of free workshops, as well as various activities to promote Korean culture, held at the Korean Information Centre to introduce Korean culture and language, Korean cooking and Korean movies, Korean literature, etc.
