Russia to allocate $1 million for “Class” project to teach Russian language in Uzbekistan

The Ministry of Education of Russia in 2021 will allocate 75 million rubles (more than $1 million) for the “Class” project to improve the level of teaching the Russian language in Uzbekistan, Olga Podberezkina, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Public Relations of the Education Ministry, said.

In October 2020, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan and the charity foundation of Russian businessman and philanthropist Alisher Usmanov “Art, Science, Sport” signed an agreement on the implementation of the “Class” project to improve the level of teaching the Russian language in the republic. The executors of the program are the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen and the Institute for Retraining and Advanced Training of Leaders and Specialists of the Public Education System named after A. Avloniy.

On February 11, a roundtable on cooperation in the educational field was held on the online platform of the “Expo-Russia Uzbekistan” fair.

“The Ministry of Education will allocate 75 million rubles for the “Class” project in 2021. This is the most ambitious and flagship project of the ministry in Uzbekistan,” Podberezkina said during the event.

The representative of the ministry also separately noted the contribution of Alisher Usmanov, a native of Uzbekistan, who plans, before the completion of the project in 2030, “to channel funds for the salaries of teachers under the agreement.”

According to the Ministry of Education, as part of the first stage of the project in 2020, 32 specialists from Russia tested about 4,000 local teachers and 500 students for knowledge of the Russian language in all 14 regions of Uzbekistan. In 2021, the first 100 teachers and methodologists will be sent to the republic to work in schools, Podberezkina added.

According to the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan, the number of university graduates in the specialties “Russian language and literature” does not cover even half of the existing need, in the primary grades – only a third.

It should be recalled that in recent years, a number of projects have been implemented in Uzbekistan to promote the teaching of the Russian language in educational institutions.