“The Education Limit Has Been Reached”: When the Right to Study Depends on a Bank Queue

“The Education Limit Has Been Reached”: When the Right to Study Depends on a Bank Queue Parents of Turkmen students studying abroad are once again facing obstacles in paying tuition fees. According to Azatlyk Radiosy, banks are refusing to process transfers at the official exchange rate, explaining that the government-set limit for foreign-currency transfers for September has already been exhausted. Parents are being told to wait until October. Foreign universities, however, are not obliged to wait. Late payment can put a student’s continued education at risk. Moreover, the ability to transfer tuition fees is itself restricted: it is available only to students attending certain foreign universities that meet criteria established by the state. Against the backdrop of limited access to bank transfers, Azatlyk reports that intermediaries have emerged offering to process payments without waiting in line for USD 250–300. The result is a paradox: the family has the money, the student has been admitted to a university, and the payment deadline has been set — yet the state-controlled system prevents the family from paying for their child’s education on time. “The limit has been reached,” and with it, the practical ability to exercise the right to education is temporarily put on hold. This is more than a banking inconvenience. Such administrative and currency restrictions can create obstacles to the exercise of the right to education, which is protected, among other provisions, by Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Turkmenistan is a State Party. In addition, opaque limits and the absence of a clear mechanism for making tuition payments on time create conditions for informal intermediaries to emerge and impose additional financial burdens on families. This raises a simple question for the state: if a citizen is permitted to study abroad, why should their ability to pay tuition depend on whether their parent managed to get into a bank queue before the state effectively declared: “That’s it for September”? Education is neither a foreign-currency privilege nor a banking lottery. State policies should not create barriers that put students at risk of losing the opportunity to continue their studies solely because of administrative restrictions on transferring their own tuition payments. Source: Azatlyk Radiosy, 22 September 2026.