DUSHANBE, October 17, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Under an instruction released by the Ministry of Education (MoE) recently, students are prohibited from participating in educational events organized by international organizations.

The instruction under the number of 05/2-414 that was issued on October 8, in particular, notes that holding by international organizations of various conferences, seminars and meetings with participation of students contradicts Tajikistan’s legislation.

The ministry charges the higher educational institutions with taking specific measures to prevent students from participating in the above-mentioned events.

Under this document signed by the First Deputy Minister of Education, Farhod Rahimov, deans of all faculties charge supervising professors with informing students of the instruction.

Representative of one of local NGOs, who wanted to remain unnamed, says this instruction is contrary to the country’s legislation and “means the turn for the worse in work of the civil sector in the field of education of the population because almost all educational events are held by public associations under financial and technical support of international organizations.”

Meanwhile, Rahmon Ulmasov, Vice-Chancellor of Russian-Tajik Slavic University (RTSU) for International Cooperation, believes that the main purpose of the instruction is in keeping students engaged in the learning process.  “Many events are held during the class hours and sometimes, students neither attend lessons nor seminars,” Ulmasov noted.