The article describes the system of education in the republic of Turkmenistan, the stages of its reform undertaken in the past decade and problems arising from the changes in the first years of the country´s independence. Particular attention is paid to such issues as decreased time of training, unsatisfactory volumes of subjects, teachers dismissal as a consequence, the transition from five to two-year training in higher education institutions, bringing students to harvest cotton during the school year, weak material and technical base of educational institutions, lack of equipment, lack of complete sets of textbooks, etc. The article presents the main indicators of the state and development of the education system at the moment. Considered in detail are the system of primary, secondary and higher education, their specific features. Particular attention is paid to the importance of establishing private universities in the country as a necessary element of competition in the education market and to attract highly qualified teachers from Turkmenistan and from abroad. The author identifies the need to analyze the structure of demand for labor, in order to plan the number of graduates of vocational education institutions in accordance with the needs of the labor market. The author highlights the essence of the reforms in education in the country at the present stage. The article stresses the need for further modernization of the contemporary system of education in Turkmenistan to ensure all segments of the economy are supplied with highly qualified specialists and, as a result, successful integration into the system of international economic relations is taking place.