Sherzod Shermatov: Admitting a child to a school on the phone request does not mean corruption

The list of 81 schools in Tashkent, which attract the highest demand, has been set up. And establishment of a new order of admitting pupils for those schools does not mean that the heads of these schools are corrupt, the Minister of Public Education Sherzod Shermatov stated.

“It is said that corruption should be avoided. Does it mean that directors of those schools are corrupt or corruption is widely practiced at those schools? Won’t there be misunderstandings, such as, saying those school principals are not worthy of their posts? Or do we legitimize the money coming from that corruption?” journalists asked Shermatov.

“Firstly, there is a presumption of innocence. You cannot blame everyone for presence of shortcomings. If you look for a fault, you can see that all people working in budgetary organizations may commit a mistake, Should all people be arrested? I think there is no need to go that deep.” the minister replied.

According to Shermatov, at some schools, 50-70% of pupils, who are newly enrolled in, are admitted following a phone request. “This call does not mean corruption. There are some bodies and inspectors who can request. As I said, there is a presumption of innocence. Do not try to blame everyone that they are corrupt,” the MPE noted.

“Secondly, we have set six goals. Let's achieve five of them. We do not discuss the sixth now. You are only talking about that and the main thing remains aside. There are many illegal interventions. There might be cases that interests of many people have been overlooked. We are winding up such cases by this decision,” Kun.uz correspondent, who participated in a press conference at Agency for Information and Mass Communications, quoted Shermatov as saying.

For information, according to the government decision, in the academic year 2019/2020, an admission to 81 schools in Tashkent will be carried out through the Centers for State Services and the Single Interactive State Services Portal.