There is something very Soviet/Central Asian about putting up monuments, and it’s definitely a fashionable thing to do at the moment (recent achievements include the world’s tallest flagpole in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan has the world record for the largest Ferris wheel). Today I can report that Kazakhstan is planning to build the country’s first monument ‘dedicated to the noble work of all teachers in the country’. The idea is to ‘to start a new tradition by creating a place for couples to lay flowers, young teachers to come and pledge their allegiance to upholding a professional honor code and to students to carry out their activities’.

The full story plus video [en] is available at http://caspionet.kz/eng/general/Monument_to_teachers_to_be_put_up_in_Pavlodar_1349668771.html.

I look forward to seeing this. Is this a world first? Please let me know if you have ever seen other such monuments – photos welcome!