DUSHANBE, August 15, Asia-Plus - The U.S Government has announced the beginning of a program of training for teachers at Tajik higher educational institutions (Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP).

Representatives from the American Councils for International Education in Tajikistan (ACCELS) remarked this at a news conference in Dushanbe.  

Junior Faculty Development Program sends young professors to the United States for a total of five months of training.  This program covers some countries of the CIS and Eastern Europe.  The JFDP scholarship holders will stay in the United States from January to May 2007, and ACCELS sponsors the events and activity of the scholarship holders during the whole program.  

According to Ms. Aziza Boymatova, the program coordinator at the American Councils for International Education in Tajikistan, only four scholarship holders will be sent from Tajikistan this year.  “A number of contenders is not limited,” said Ms. Boymatova, “Number of scholarship holders depends on number of persons participating in selection competitions”  

According to her, low number of our teachers participating in this Program is connected with their diffidence and insufficient knowledge of English. 

Participants are selected in three stages of open competition: assessment of application; a test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL); and interview.