Tajikistan

The total damage to the education system done by the civil war is estimated at US$100 million. Between 1997 and 1999, various U.N. agencies and donors like the World Bank have given funds to help restore and reconstruct schools around the country as well as providing food and clothing to boarding schools. In 1999 the World Bank announced approved of US$5 million for the Tajikistan Education Reform Credit which will improve access to high quality education and will raise learning achievements of students.

This project will introduce innovation and reform in primary education in Tajikistan, focusing on primary grades and carried out through the Ministry of Education, piloting new methods of teaching, school rehabilitation, and textbook development in a participatory approach. It will involve central, regional, and school administrations, as well as parents, students, and the community at large.

The total cost of the project is US$5.5 million, including US$0.5 million from the Tajikistan government. The credit will be disbursed on standard terms with a maturity of 40 years, including a 10-year grace period. Since Tajikistan joined the World Bank in 1993, commitments total approximately US$147 million for eight projects.

Educational facilities were established throughout the former Tajik Soviet socialist republic according to a rigid set of geographic and demographic criteria so as to ensure that all children, at least in the lower grades, had access to schools in their village or neighborhoods that could be reached on foot without crossing major roads. Except in the south and southwest, where damage and destruction of schools was widespread during the civil war, this pattern still holds.

Construction of new educational facilities was extremely limited in 1995, only 2,566 new places were added. Of these, the 560 that were added in Khatlon Oblast and the 582 that were added in the Regions of Republican Subordination mostly represented restoration of previously destroyed facilities. Of the remainder, 1184 were added in the relatively prosperous Leninabad (Khujand) region and 240 in Gorno-Badakhshan. It is worth noting that most schools (73 percent) in the country operate on two shifts owing to insufficient capacity to accommodate all students in their catchment area at the same time.

Work on development of the standards is also underway. Leaning on the experience of Russia, educational standards in view of national and regional peculiarities of the country have been produced. The general requirements, purposes, problems, and the principles of standardization of education are defined by the government, and the content of training, that is the standards of education under the basic educational programs, are affirmed by the Ministry of Education.

The legislative basis and budget financing of the education system is determined solely by the Madjlisi Oli (Parliament) of the country. The government is responsible for execution of the decrees and orders of the president, laws, and resolutions of the Madjlisi Oli. It carries out state policy in the field of education; considers and approves the republican programs of development of education, including interstate and international; makes financial decisions; and establishes the state specifications and order of financing of education system. The Ministry of Education is working to implement state policy. The local authority (Khukumat of areas, towns, regions) carries out state policy in the field of education, develops and realizes territorial (regional) programs of development of education in view of national and socioeconomic, cultural, demographic, and other peculiarities of the district. In the formation of state policy in the field of education, the active participation of urban and village (jamoats) educational establishments, and public and nongovernmental organizations, is accepted.

Education funding plunged from 9.5 percent of the stage budget in 1990 to just 2.2 percent in 1998. In 2003-2005, a new system of normative financing of educational institutions will begin calculated on the basis of costs per student, instead of per class, as was earlier done. Normative financing will be calculated depending on the number of pupils or children within a certain age group. There will be the development of self-financing schools, ensuring transparent use of nonbudget means, such as parental payments. To enter mechanisms of credit for educational purposes, concessionary terms in material and resource maintenance of sphere of education are required. All measures of this period should be directed on achieving financial stabilization of the education sector.

It has always been the practice in Tajikistan to create interdepartmental commissions, or councils, within the central government and local Khukumats, on youth, children, and women, where problems of education for all are considered. However, in modern conditions it has become necessary to create special interdepartmental commissions within the government and an advisory council under the president to address certain questions, consulting experts in the field of education, scientists, experienced teachers, and other representatives of the public. The forms and modes of work of these bodies should be modern and correspond to the requirements of a democratic and open civil society as opposed to the former practice.

According to Order No. 6-0 "About the Statement of Measures of the Ministry of Education on Realization of the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan 'About Education"' signed on 24 March 1994, rules about preschool establishment, comprehensive school, secondary special school, nonschool child care establishment, students' organizations of all types, and higher education institutions are authorized. Similarly, the concepts of preschool education, concept of learning at schools, criteria of state standards of education, and mechanisms of their introduction are determined.

The concept of "national school" is the major document in the education sector, as it defines the purposes, tasks, and prospects of education. Taking into account the importance of this document, the Ministry of Education, on 3 January 1995, issued the order "About the Statement of Measures of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan on Realization of the Concept of National School." The developed measures cover questions of organization, including maintenance of the control, preparation, and increase of qualification of the pedagogical staff; development of urban problems; definition of the contents of education; study of the existing educational programs; textbooks and their updating; and realization of experimental work.

The Ministry of Education supervises educational programs and textbooks. The Ministry of Education, on 29 May 1993, issued the Order No. 88 "About Improvement of Development and Ordering of the Program, Textbooks and Educational Methodical Literature for Secondary Comprehensive Schools of the Republic." The present order authorizes measures for drawing up and improving the quality of educational programs, textbooks, and educational methodical literature for comprehensive schools.

Taking into account the acute shortage of experts in the education sector, the government passed Resolution No. 406 "About Some Measures on Improvement of Use of Young Experts after Graduation from Higher and Secondary Special Educational Institutions," on 12 June 1995. Thereby, the government obliges the graduates who finish high school at the expense of the state budget to not less than three years of work according to assignment and direction of ministries and departments. This document has become the legal basis for the Ministry of Education to provide work for graduates of high and secondary special pedagogical educational institutions.

Item 3 of Article 12 of the Law "About Education," grants all children the right to receive a basic nine-year education. The Ministry of Education has issued the Orders No. 476 (21 August 197), No. 608 (27 October 1997) and No. 654 (25 November 1997). These orders estimate conditions, define the number of school-aged children, and involve them in training with special emphasis on the continuation of girls' studies and compensation for the loss of studies by refugee children now returning to the country.