Shavkat Mirziyoyev chairs meeting on public education reforms

UZBEKISTAN, April 5 – On April 5, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on analyzing the effectiveness of reforms in public education.
Human capital development is one of the seven priorities of Uzbekistan’s development strategy. At the meeting held on January 28 this year, issues in this area were discussed and many tasks were identified.
Over the past two months, responsible people have investigated the issues in all regions. It was revealed that 852 schools in the country have extremely low indicators of the quality of education, the potential of teachers and the admission of graduates to universities.
Advanced techniques were introduced in presidential, specialized and private schools. But the biggest problem with other schools is that the teaching methods are outdated. There are also no initiatives to introduce modern teaching methods.
Despite the allocation of funds to equip schools with computers, work in Karakalpakstan, Andijan, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya, Namangan and Tashkent regions is slow. The quality of education in schools in remote areas is not satisfactory.
As we know, at the beginning of the year, councils were formed to reform school education. The Hokims of the regions, districts and towns are presidents of the local councils. Therefore, hokim in low-education areas received a warning.
The Head of State announced the launch of a national project for the retraining of school teachers on the basis of new methods.
According to this new system, in the next 3-4 years, all teachers in schools will be trained based on the new methodology. To this end, National Training Centers will be set up based on the development centers of each region to train teachers in new methods. The most qualified foreign specialists in the field of exact and natural sciences will be involved.
A group of trainers will be trained in each region to improve the skills of teachers in local schools. They will receive wage compensation of up to 100%.
By the end of the year, hokimiyats, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Education, will begin implementing advanced techniques in at least 20 percent of schools in each district and city. An additional sum of $100 million will be allocated for the implementation of this new system.
The Abdulla Avloni Institute will also be reorganized into the National Republican Center of Education and merged into a single system with the Tashkent State Pedagogical University.
In general, the system of teaching new methods will begin with the National Center of Education and the Tashkent State Pedagogical University. The University will be transferred to the Ministry of Public Education and will become the basic institution for the training and retraining of teachers in the country’s schools.
The pedagogical institutes operating in the regions will be gradually separated from the universities and transformed into independent educational establishments.
At the meeting, the main attention was given to the education of young people. The task was to develop a new concept of radically improving the spiritual situation in schools.
The need to revise the requirements for propagandists of spirituality in schools, the appointment to this post of persons enjoying high authority in the mahalla and the collective, the encouragement of exemplary pupils and parents, were noted .
Today, 120 schools in the country operate on the third and fourth coefficients. In other words, the number of students far exceeds the capacity. The president gave instructions to improve the conditions in these schools.
It was noted that at the start of the next school year, 960 schools will have computer courses, and 740 will be re-equipped.
There are plans to adopt a separate program to update more than 5,000 computer courses. UZS 200 billion will be allocated for this purpose from the republican budget, and an additional UZS 200 billion from local budgets.
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology Development has been instructed to open special preferential rates for schools, increasing the Internet speed in schools to 100 megabits per second, depending on the number of students.
Education and the situation in the school largely depend on the principals. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a certification system for school principals from the new school year. From now on, candidates for the position of director will be selected by this system.
The Head of State noted the need to develop the teaching of natural and exact sciences. On the basis of 193 educational institutions, it is planned to organize schools focused on natural and exact sciences. The Hokims were instructed to repair these schools and create all the conditions.
Ministers and hokims, head teachers expressed their opinions and suggestions.
Source: OuzA