Sector Assistance Program Evaluation on Education in Uzbekistan

ESDP (policy loan).
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After supporting one project each in basic education (BETDP) 
and SSE, ADB moved on to support wider policy reforms in the sector. The Government of 
Uzbekistan had already completed the first phase (4 years) of the 1997 NPPT. In this sense, the 
policy loan was relevant in boosting the government’s commitment to deeper sector reforms. 
Given the broad sweep of the reforms, a sector-wide development in education was indicated 
for ADB operations and this could best be done via the sector development program (SDP) 
modality. As such, ESDP was deemed quite relevant. However, the links between policy 
reforms and investment loans were not established clearly. This caused some implementation 
delays, as this was the first policy-based loan for the government. It led to problems in recruiting 
international consultants under the investment loan and prevented ESDP from delivering its full 
potential. The government undertook most of the policy reforms using resources available in its 
own public sector, thus depriving the sector of a much-needed modern, international 
perspective on education development. Nevertheless, the loan is rated relevant (see the box 
below).
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Achievements are closer to a rating of 3, but CAPE guideline does not allow giving a value of 2.5; hence, a rating 
of 2 is given. Evaluation is underestimating the performance. 
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The PCR for the investment component of the ESDP will be prepared after the loan closure. The write-up in this 
section deals only with the policy loan.

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Uzbekistan’s Education Sector Development Program 
 
Modernizing structure, content, and processes
. During the policy loan’s implementation, higher 
education was streamlined—the bachelor’s degree is now 4 years and has more applied curriculum 
content. The adoption of the 4+5+3 system has extended secondary school education by 1 year to 
include grade 12.