Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Education

In 2016, there were 9,628 schools in the republic, which were distributed according to the language of instruction as follows: 8825 - Uzbek, 836 - Russian, 380 - Kazakh, 363 - Karakalpak, 247 - Tajik, 57 - Kyrgyz, 56 - Turkmen. Some schools provide instruction in multiple languages ​​[74]. By language of instruction, schoolchildren in 2016 were distributed as follows: 85.61% studied in Uzbek, 9.94% - Russian, 1.97% - Karakalpak, 1.14% - Tajik and 1% - Kazakh Despite the developed network of universities, the number of teaching staff working in them is small (22.8 thousand people in 2015), and its qualifications are generally low: in 2009, the share of professors, doctors of sciences in the teaching staff of universities was only 6.7%, candidates of science - 30.4% [75]. In 2010, the UN Children's Fund and the IKEA Social Initiatives Fund allocated 35 thousand children's books to 850 schools in Uzbekistan.

Schooling is free of charge, but each student is charged an annual rental fee for the use of textbooks. The cheapest rent for textbooks in 2017/2018 is 7400 soums [76]. First-graders, pupils of Mehribonlik homes, special schools and boarding schools, children from families in need of social assistance receive textbooks free of charge.

Over the years of independence, the educational system inherited from the USSR has changed a lot: for example, in 2004, extramural education was canceled, but since 2017 it has been reintroduced in some universities.

Since Sh.Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016, Russia has become one of the main partners of Uzbekistan in the field of education: there are 10 branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan. In 2019 alone, six were opened, including MISiS, the nuclear university MEPhI, MGIMO, the Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism, the Mendeleev Chemical-Technological University, as well as the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.

In the years of independence, a number of foreign universities were opened in the country along with Russian ones. In 2002, the first English-language university, Westminster International University, was opened in Tashkent.