Abstract
Introduction. Existing international frameworks (DigComp 3.0, ISTE Standards, UNESCO Global Framework) were designed for resource-rich contexts and do not address AI-generated threats, linguistic specificity or the need for coordinated engagement of students, parents and teachers. Internet access among schoolchildren in the Kyrgyz Republic has expanded rapidly, while cybersecurity education in K-12 schools has lagged behind. The aim of the study is to develop and empirically validate the ASMAN model (Awareness, Skills, Monitoring, Assessment, Networking) for the formation of cybersecurity culture in K-12 schools of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Research methods. A mixed-method experimental study with a pre-test / intervention / post-test design was conducted between January 2025 and February 2026 across 727 general educational organisations in Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken oblasts and the city of Osh. The total sample comprised 23,135 participants: 21,397 parents, 848 students aged 12–16 and 890 teachers. The intervention included a 40-hour Training of Trainers programme, the interactive CyberLab platform (phishing simulator, password trainer, deepfake detector and four further modules) and parent workshops. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s χ², principal component analysis, t-SNE and k-means clustering.
Results. At baseline, 46.3% of parents had never encountered the term «cyber hygiene», 52.4% of students could not define cybersecurity, 72.6% reused weak passwords and only 21.9% of teachers had ever delivered a cybersecurity lesson. After the intervention all indicators improved significantly (p < 0.001). Phishing recognition rose by 56.2 percentage points, the share of teachers conducting cybersecurity lessons by 45.9 pp, and belief in the impossibility of video fabrication decreased by 58.3 pp.
Educational implications. The findings show that simulation-based learning outperforms lecture-based approaches in building cybersecurity skills and should be embedded across the curriculum rather than delivered as a stand-alone course. Tri-stakeholder engagement — students, parents and teachers simultaneously — produces larger effects than single-audience interventions and is reproducible at system scale through the existing in-service teacher training infrastructure.
Conclusion. The ASMAN model combined with the CyberLab platform provides an effective and scalable framework for forming cybersecurity culture in K-12 schools of a developing Central Asian country. The tri-stakeholder design and simulation-based training are the key success factors. The results can inform cybersecurity policy in the Kyrgyz Republic and comparable post-Soviet educational systems and provide a baseline dataset for future longitudinal and comparative research in Central Asia.
Keywords
cybersecurity education, ASMAN model, K-12 schools, Kyrgyzstan, teacher training, phishing simulation, Central Asia
For Citation
Esenalieva, G. A., Ongarbayeva, A. D., Kaldybaev, S. K., & Koishybekova, A. K. (2026). Formation of Cybersecurity Culture in K-12 Schools of Kyrgyzstan: Development and Empirical Validation of the ASMAN Model. Perspektivy nauki i obrazovania = Perspectives of Science and Education, (5), 606–621. https://doi.org/10.32744/pse.2026.5.39
Authors
Gulzada A. Esenalieva (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) — Associate Professor. American University of Central Asia. E-mail: esenalieva_g@auca.kg
Aliya D. Ongarbayeva (Almaty, Kazakhstan) — Cand. Sci. (Educ.), Senior Lecturer, Department of Informatics, Institute of Physics, Mathematics and Digital Technologies. Kazakh National Women’s Teacher Training University. E-mail: aliaod_80@mail.ru
Salidin K. Kaldybaev (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) — Dr. Sci. (Educ.), Professor, Vice-Rector. Ala-Too International University. E-mail: salidin.kaldybaev@alatoo.edu.kg
Aizhan K. Koishybekova (Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan) — PhD, Senior Lecturer, Department of Informatics and Digitalization of Education, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Zhetysu University named after I. Zhansugurov. E-mail: aizhankym@gmail.com
© Gulzada Esenalieva, Aliya D. Ongarbayeva, Salidin K. Kaldybaev, Aizhan K. Koishybekova, 2026
The authors declared no conflicts of interest
Received: 25 April 2026 | Approved: 12 July 2026 | Published: 31 October 2026
This is an open access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike International License (CC-BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal
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