Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth
2017, the Ministry of Preschool Education was established and a road map 
was approved for developing preschool education in the country.
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In 2018, access to preschool education started to improve, with the number 
of preschool educational institutions increasing, both public and private, 
and an increased average coverage of children aged 3–7.
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About 859,000 
children were covered by preschool education, which is about 34% of all 
children aged 3–7. New initiatives to develop public–private partnerships in 
preschool education are showing positive results.
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Preschool education and attendance is positively correlated with 
employment opportunities. Ajwad et al. (2014) found that in Uzbekistan, 
attending preschool is often the precursor to attaining higher education, and 
that it increases the probability of employment and of having better work 
in the future. While increasing access to preschool education, attention 
must be paid to teacher training, including development of professional 
skills and improved teaching standards to ensure that children develop key 
competencies through the means appropriate for their age. 
3.3.2. Secondary education 
With the introduction of the 11-year education system in 2017, textbooks and 
a curriculum were rapidly created for year 10 students. Schools are obliged to 
teach using uniform textbooks and curriculum prepared by the Ministry of 
Public Education, yet the last time these obligations were implemented was a 
decade ago. Hence the secondary school curricula are outdated and not very 
relevant, while textbooks for colleges and lyceums have replaced secondary 
school textbooks. Developing new curricula and textbooks in the languages 
of instruction is thus urgently required, although it is a time-consuming and 
costly process. Since the 2017/18 school year, 8.5 million textbooks and 
teaching aids have been published for grade 10 students, but more are needed. 
At the same time, 116,000 year-10 teachers have been required to take short 
teacher training courses to refresh their professional knowledge and enhance 
their teaching skills. 
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Government of Uzbekistan (2018a) Presidential Decree No. UP-3651. On Measures for Promoting and 
Developing Preschool Education System. 5 April 2018.
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In 2018, according to the Ministry of Preschool Education, there were 6,154 preschool educational institutions 
in the country, of which 5,586 were state and 568 were private preschools 
(The KoreaTimes
2018). 
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The Ministry of Preschool Education engaged a private consulting company for a preschool education 
institutions inventory exercise. This identified missing entities (branches of the state preschool education 
institutions) that were not initially counted in reporting. Another public–private partnership initiative is 
outsourcing of catering services, which is being pilot tested in several regions.

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