DUSHANBE, March 16, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of education.

Kyrgyz news agency Kabar reported that Kyrgyz Education Minister Kanybek Osmonaliyev and his Tajik counterpart, Abdujabbor Rahmonov, inked the agreement in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on March 15.   

According to the Tajik Ministry of Education (MoE), the Tajik minister made stopover in Bishkek on his way to the Kazakh city of Almaty, where the first two-day meeting of the CIS council for humanitarian cooperation opened today.  The source at a MoE, however, noted that he does not have information about the agreement signed in Bishkek.  

In the meantime, according to Kabar, the agreement signed in Bishkek includes provisions related to quotas for Kyrgyz students studying in Tajikistan and for Tajik students studying in Kyrgyzstan, student exchange programs, as well as support for development of Kyrgyz-language schools in Tajikistan and Tajik-language schools in Kyrgyzstan.

The source at the Tajik MoE noted that Kyrgyzstan has to date annually allotted Tajikistan a quota of 20 students. 

A March 16-17 session of the CIS council for humanitarian cooperation focuses on implementation of decisions taken by the special representatives of the CIS heads of state on December 23, 2006 in Yerevan, Armenia.  Apart from that, issues on formation of the interstate fund of humanitarian cooperation of the CIS member states, cooperation with UNESCO and other international organizations will be in the highlights.

An agreement on the CIS council for humanitarian cooperation was adopted at a session of the council of the CIS heads of state in November 2006 in Minsk. It was signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In May 2006, an agreement on formation of the interstate fund of humanitarian cooperation of the CIS member states was signed in Dushanbe.