Education system in the Republic of Uzbekistan

participation of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Isla m Karimov the 
“National Programme for Specialist Training” was developed and adopted by 
the Oliy Majlis (Parlia me nt) in 1997. 
Main pur pose of this Progra mme is to train spiritually rich and morall y 
mature, possessing up-to-date knowle dge and taking active civil position, 
independently thinking specialists, capable of taking decision deliberately, or, 
in othe r words, upbringing harmo niously develo ped ge neration, capable of 
providing the progress and prosperity of Motherla nd in the new historical era. 
The proper model of the syste m of continuing education aiming at training 
the personne l were developed on the basis of deep and wide scale studies of 
foreign experience, critical analysis of existing syste m of education. Thus , 
continuing sys tem of education of Uzbekistan has been adopted. It included 12 
years educatio n cons isting of 9 years ge ne ral secondary and 3 years secondar y 
specialised vocationa l educatio n. Then comes the highe r education cons isting 
of two levels – Bache lor’s and Master’ s Degree studies. Natio nal model als o 
includes the pre-school education for the childre n of 6 or 7 years old, 
extracurric ular (non-school) educatio n to define the talent and interests o f 
children, additional education for elder people for retraining and up grading the 
qualification, as well as further education for preparation of scie ntific and 
scie ntific-pedago gical staff. 
Imple me ntatio n of National programme is carried out in three phases. 
Structural reconstruction of the sys tem of educatio n, reorganization of existin g 
educational institutio ns into principally new ones (acade mic lyceum and 
vocatio nal colle ges) were carrie d out during the first phase (1997-2001). As a 
result, nowadays 63 higher educational ins titutio ns and about 1100 vocationa l 
colle ges and academic lyceum are functio ning in Uzbekistan. 1 million 22 0 
tho usand yo ung people are stud ying in these educational institutio ns. 
During five years the normative-legal basis for the system of preparation of 
personnel were fully renewed and brought in line with the require me nts of

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social and econo mic develop me nt of the country, ne w educational standa rds 
were develo ped and introduced into practice, unique concept of creating the 
educational literature of new ge neration has been impleme nted. 
Key ele me nts of the first phase of imp le me ntation of National programme 
were the preparation and upgrading the qualificatio n of pedago gical and 
scie ntific-pedago gical staff who could meet the mo dern require me nts. State 
require me nts as to up grading the qualification, educatio nal programmes fo r 
the different categories of specialists were developed and introduced. The 
structural reconstruction of the institutions was carried out wit h the aim o f 
up grading the qualification, focusing on distance education on the sche me 2+2 
or 3+3, i.e. the work of the teacher in his/her work place on the tasks set b y 
the institutio n for upgrading the qualificatio n during two weeks and defense of 
individual papers during the othe r two weeks. The Republican Fund “Ustoz” 
(in English “Teacher”) was set up in order to provide state support in 
up grading the qualificatio n of pedago gical staff». More tha n 600 teachers ha d 
a cha nce to upgrade their qualification in the higher educatio nal institutions o f 
developed countries us ing the grants of this Fund. More tha n 3000 teachers 
could upgrade their qualificatio n us ing the grants of other funds and 
ins titutio ns. Besides, almost 1000 foreign teachers and specialists were invited 
to the Uzbek institutio ns for up grading the qualification for short ter m 
teaching activities. 
Introduction of new model and educational standards required the creation of 
textbooks and teaching-methodological literature of new generation. The Government 
adopted a special resolution to solve this problem. This resolution stipulates the 
revision of existing textbooks and creation of new ones, as well as financial and moral 
stimulating of authors of educational literature. It was decided to develop cycle of 
lectures with their further publication. After the approbation they were gradually 
changed into manuals and textbooks. Until the end of 2003 higher educational 
institutions were fully provided with the educational literature on all disciplines 
(subjects). The work on creation of electronic textbooks, multimedia educational 
complexes including virtual laboratories and stands were widely carried out. This type 
of textbooks created the preconditions for approbation of distance education for the 
students of some disciples. To discuss the content and quality of texts of lectures, 
textbooks and manuals, their electronic versions were placed in the central portals 
(web-sites) of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education. Every 
teacher or student had a chance to use with the working outs of not only his/her 
institutions but educational materials of other educational institutions as well.. 
Practically all the higher educatio nal institutio ns of the republic create d 
their local area network and ha ve an access to global network - Internet. Part 
of higher educatio nal institutio ns are already connected to Republica n 
educational network. Nowadays it is widening and modernizing. Educatio na l 
laboratories of higher educational institutions alo ng with the traditiona l 
la boratory facilities widely use virtual laboratory stands on the basis of ICT. 
The branches of chairs and la boratories are created in scientific laboratories

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and sectoral scie ntific research instit utes of the Acade my of Scie nce aiming at 
efficient us e of laboratory bases. 
Funda me ntal libraries of higher educational instit utions are equipped wit h 
comp uter, copying facilities and the means of exc hange and trans mission o f 
information. The system of auto matic formi ng the funds and search for 
information “IRBIS” is introduced in these instit utions. Modern libraries, 
along with traditional funds of paper forms, ha ve e-books, e-text books, whic h 
are developed by the higher educational institutions as well as purchased fro m 
abroad. 
International relations of higher educationa l institutio ns of Uzbekistan are 
deve loping year by year. Branches of International Westminster Universit y 
and Russia n Academy of Econo mics name d after G.V. Plekha no v were set up 
in 2002 in Tashkent. Branc h of Mos cow State Universit y na med after M. 
Lomo nosov opene d in Tashkent in 2006. Nowadays Ministry of higher and 
secondary specialised education is working on the establishme nt of the branch 
of Rus sia n State University of Oil and Gas na med after I. Gubkin. 
Samarkand State University is cond ucting Master’s degree courses togethe r 
with the Bologna University (Italy). Higher educatio nal institutions are als o 
working on preparation of highly qualified specialists together with the 
Universities in Japan, China, France, Germa ny, Netherla nds, Spain, etc. For 
insta nce, Weihe nstephan University of Applied Scie nces is conducting double 
degree master courses on agric ulture and irrigatio n togethe r with severa l 
agric ultural institutio ns of Uzbekis tan. Universities from Spain allocated a 
grant to develop the joint for ms of preparatio n of specialists together with the 
Uzbek State World Langua ges University. Close cooperation is establis he d 
and deve loping with the number of leading Universities of foreign countries 
such as Belgia n Institute of Translatio n/Interpretation in Brussels, Sorbonna 
University, Weihenstepha n Unive rsit y of Applied Sciences, Humb old, Berlin 
and Munich Universities, etc. The Gove rnme nt of Japan rendered an assistanc e 
to the Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Ind ustry in the amo unt of 44 0 
million ye n to equip the Institute with modern textile equipme nt. Dista nc e 
learning of educational programs is carried out in collaboration wit h 
Massachusetts Technolo gical Univers ity and some other Universities o f 
foreign countries. There are ma ny citiz ens of foreign countries studying in the 
higher educatio nal institutions of Uzbekistan. 
Refor ms in the field of educatio n cond ucted in the Republic of Uzbekista n 
allow the nationa l system of continuing education integrate into world 
educational area. 
The “Law on Education” and “National Programme for Training Personnel” of the 
Republic of Uzbekistan, adopted on August 29, 1997, are the main normative-legal 
basis determining the reforms and substance of the sphere of education in the 
Republic of Uzbekistan.

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Number of sub-legislative directive and normative acts in the field of education 
are adopted with the purpose to implement the above mentioned basic documents 
during the recent years: 
Administering the system of education; 
Reforming the content of educational process; 
Financing and material-technical provision; 
Training, retraining and upgrading the qualification of pedagogical and 
scientific-pedagogical staff; 
Development of labour market services; 
International cooperation in the sphere of education and personnel training; 
Provision of social guaranties and state support in the sphere of education and 
others. 
Dozens of Decrees and Resolutions of the President of the Republic of 
Uzbekistan, more than 70 regulations and resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers, as 
well as normative-legal documents adopted in the framework of the authority of the 
Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education of Uzbekistan are among 
them. 
Ministry is conducting purposeful systematic development of new generation of 
State educational standards of higher education. Joint working groups of specialists 
with the Ministry of Public Education to provide efficiency and quality of preparing 
specialists. This group began the work on the development of unique indissoluble 
model educational programs which cover the general secondary, secondary 
specialised, vocational and higher education. Taking into account the importance of 
the sphere “Informatics and information technologies” was taken as a first subject to 
start with.