80.8% children should be covered in preschool system by 2030 – Presidential resolution

On May 8, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a resolution approving the Concept for the Development of the Preschool Education System by 2030 and approved a roadmap for its implementation in 2019, the Ministry of Preschool Education said.

The concept defined the goals, tasks, priorities and stages of the development of preschool education in the medium and long term. The document provides for the solution of the problems concerning shortage of qualified pedagogical personnel, overload of state preschool institutions, inadequate material and technical condition and a low percentage of the availability of educational-methodological materials of state preschool institutions.

“The task was set to increase the coverage of children in preschool system by 2030 from the current 38.1% to 80.8%. Also, the ministry will continue to increase the capacity of educational institutions: by 2021, the number of available seats will grow by 56.8% (by 2030 - by 132.3%) due to the opening of new preschool institutions, as well as the development of public-private partnerships and alternative forms of preschool education,” Ten Elena, general management head of organizing preschool institutions’ activities, said.

According to the adopted Concept, the priority areas for the development of preschool education system by 2030 will be:

- further improvement of the regulatory framework (development of the State standard for preschool education, approval of standards for provision of pupils with material resources, food, medical care, development of the procedure for the implementation of alternative forms of preschool education);

- creating conditions for comprehensive development of children of preschool age (widespread introduction of the state program “First Step” and inclusive education, the development of educational materials, ensuring the continuity of preschool and primary education);

- increasing coverage, ensuring equal access of children to high-quality preschool education, developing public-private partnerships (building new and reconstructing old preschool institutions, universal introduction of free year-long preparation for school, developing alternative forms of preschool education, and providing them with public utilities);

- introducing innovations, advanced pedagogical and communication technologies (development of information databases and multimedia products, introduction of digital educational resources for home education and parent education, stage-by-stage provision of all preschool educational institutions of the republic with Internet access);

- improving the preschool education management system, ensuring transparency and efficiency of financing (creating effective monitoring mechanisms, providing information to interested persons, further improving the system of working with appeals, attracting foreign investment and grants, consistently introducing regulatory per capita funding);

- introducing new approaches to the selection and development of personnel (introduction of international educational standards, involvement of foreign experts and organization of internships, development of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of employees, improvement of material incentives programs and social support for personnel);

- providing children with healthy and balanced nutrition, high-quality medical care in preschool institutions (creation of a centralized system for monitoring the supply of preschool institutions with products, involvement of specialized enterprises in terms of outsourcing, improvement of comprehensive care for children with special needs).

The implementation of the concept will be carried out in stages. Each year until December 1, the Ministry of Preschool Education, based on a study of the results of the outgoing year, will develop and submit a draft roadmap for the next year to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval.