Only a new vision, new ideas and new plans can determine the prospects of the state, actions and practical results related to the development of the homeland and the well-being of the people. It is difficult to implement plans if there are no clear plans, corresponding actions and activities.

All our people listened to the latest Address of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Senate and the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis with great enthusiasm. It was proposed to declare the Year of Human Care and Quality Education.

At the heart of giving such a name to the year 2023 is the priority task of ensuring the human and his interests, increasing the quality of education in schools and the prestige of the teaching profession in society.

In the address, the Head of our state mentioned defining separately in the Constitution, which is considered as our fundamental law, the protection of the status of teachers, their honor and dignity, building in 2023 additional 70 new schools, expansion 460 of them, starting a project on building 100 schools with the participation of private investments, and increasing their number to 1000 in the next five years, the introduction of new program standards starting from 2023 to effectively use the opportunities of more than 700 vocational schools, colleges and technical schools.

It should be noted that in the last six years, as a result of consistent reforms in education, the level of coverage of preschool education has increased from 27.7% to 67%, the percentage of qualified teachers with higher education in schools has increased from 81.8% to 87.8%, and the level of coverage of youth with higher education has been increased from 9% to 38%.

Also, to consistently continue reforms in the field, within the framework of the Development Strategy, by 2026, it is planned to increase the level of coverage in preschool education from the current 67% to 80%, establish more than 7 thousand new non-governmental preschools, create additional 1.2 million student places in the public education system, gradually increase the monthly salaries of qualified teachers to the equivalent of 1,000 USD, increase the level of coverage in higher education to 50% and the number of non-state HEIs to at least 50.

As noted in the address, starting from the next academic year, the practice of free meals for primary schoolchildren, which was established in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm, will be established also in schools of all other regions and the city of Tashkent.

To implement the above goals, 58.37 trillion UZS (23% of the total expenses of the state budget) is planned to be allocated from the state budget to the education sector in 2023, which means 16% more than the expected figure in 2022.

It is worth noting that such efforts aimed at improving the quality of education and the tasks defined in the Development Strategy in this regard will certainly bear fruit. After all, it is no exaggeration to say that all this will serve to radically improve the lives of our people, increase the well-being of the population and achieve the goals set for Uzbekistan to join the ranks of developed countries shortly.

Jamshid SHARIPOV,

Expert of the Development Strategy Center.

UzA