32 Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Vol 19, No 1, 2020, 32-57. Copyright © ECMI 2020 This article is located at: https://www.ecmi.de/fileadmin/redakteure/publications/JEMIE_D atens%C3%A4tze/Jemie_2020_1/02_Ferrando.pdf Education Language Policies and Practices in Post-Soviet Central Asia. An Historical Analysis of Ethnic Minorities in the Ferghana Valley Olivier Ferrando * Institute of Political Studies, Sciences Po Paris Abstract In Soviet times, nationality policy used language, among other cultural criteria, to differentiate ethnic groups and reinforce their collective consciousness. Most citizens were consequently granted schooling in their own native language. Since 1989, Central Asian governments have endeavoured to promote their state language in all areas of the public sphere. In the education sector, new policies have encouraged the use of the state language as the sole language of instruction. As a result, the share of schools providing education in Russian or any other minority language appreciably declined during the first decade of independence. This article examines the issue of language of instruction — the primary language in which education is provided — in post-Soviet Central Asia from a double comparative perspective. First, it looks at three neighbouring countries, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, focusing particularly on the Ferghana valley, a small but densely populated region that spans all three countries and is often considered a microcosm of Central Asian complexity. Second, the article looks at indigenous minorities who were present prior to Russian colonization, namely those known today as Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Tajiks, and who were suddenly cut off from their kin states in the early 1990s, after the establishment of international borders within Central Asia. Keywords: Language of instruction, education policy, ethnic mobilization, Ferghana valley * Contact: olivierferrando@gmail.com