DUSHANBE, February 18, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan and Turkey now plan to work out a new government-to-government agreement on education cooperation.

As it had been reported earlier, the fourth meeting of the Permanent Commission of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education (MoE) and Turkey’s Ministry of National Education (MoNE) took place Dushanbe on February 15-16.  MoNE Deputy Undersecretary Salih Celik represented the Turkish side at the meeting.

The source at a MoE says the issue of working out a new education cooperation agreement was a major topic of the agreement as many provisions of the agreement signed between the education ministries of Tajikistan and Turkey in 1996 have gone out of date.  “The new agreement is expected to provide for expansion of education cooperation between the two countries, in particular larger quota for Tajik students to study at Turkish educational facilities, training of specialists, experience exchange and so forth,” he said.

The meeting resulted in signing of a protocol of intent that will be submitted for consideration to the governments of the two countries and a new draft agreement of education cooperation will be worked out after that.  The next fifth meeting of the Permanent Commission will take lace in Turkey in 2012.

During their stay in Dushanbe, the Turkish delegation members also visited two Tajik-Turkish lyceums here, the source added.

According to the statistical data from Tajik MoE, 600 Tajik students have studied at educational facilities in Turkey since 1994.