Tajik Minister of Education and Science Mahamdyusuf Imomov has had a video meeting with Russian Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov to discuss cooperation issues, according to the press center of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education and Science (MoES).

During the meeting, Imomov reportedly asked the Russian minister to speed up the beginning of construction of five Russian–language schools in Tajikistan.

Sergey Kravtsov reportedly assured that the construction of the schools will begin in Tajikistan in the near future.  

The sides also discussed the issues related to delivering textbooks from Russia to Tajikistan for the Russian-language schools, the MoES press center said.

Recall, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament on January 15 this year ratified an agreement with Russia on construction of five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan.  The schools will be built in the cities of Bokhtar, Dushanbe, Khujand, Kulob and Tursunzoda.

A government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on construction of five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan was signed in Moscow on April 17 last year.  

The agreement provides for phased construction of Russian-language schools in the mentioned cities and equipping of them.  Each of these schools will accommodate up to 1,200 pupils. 

The construction of the schools will be financed by the Russian government.  Russia will provide six billion rubles for construction of these schools. 

Recall, Russia at the start of the academic year 2018-2019 sent 30 teachers to secondary schools in Tajikistan.  Teachers from the Russian regions of Kostroma, Kemerovo, Bashkortostan, Dagestan, and Tatarstan arrived in Tajikistan to teach subjects such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, Russian, and others at secondary schools where teaching is conducted in Russian.

Russian teachers left Tajikistan this year because of the coronavirus crisis.

The education sector in Tajikistan has been in decline after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and many Tajik nationals described the effort to bring over Russian teachers as a much-needed remedy.