Construction of five Russian-language schools may start in Tajikistan in summer next year, Igor Burulko, First Secretary, Russian Embassy in Dushanbe, said at press conference in Dushanbe yesterday, according to Khovar news agency.

“Several days, go, the Russian Federation allocated funds for advance payment of the work of the general contractor, and sites for construction of schools have been determined,” Burulko said.

The results of a tender for selecting general contractor (it will be a Russian company) and subcontractors (Tajik companies) will become known in February.  

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.  The schools will be built in the cities of Bokhtar, Dushanbe, Khujand, Kulob and Tursunzoda.

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.  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.