President Emomali Rahmon has sharply criticized the poor work of the country’s educational system.

His criticism, directed at the educational sector came during an address to a joint meeting of both chambers of parliament that took place on December 21. 

Rahmon, in particular, harshly criticized the poor study of foreign languages at schools and universities.   

“How can quality of education be improved?  We are deceiving ourselves.  For us, numbers are more important than quality of education.  We are engaged only in the issuance of a diploma - a piece of paper, while heads are empty.  We need to review the education system,” the president said, noting that most of teachers use old education programs and they do not understand the new information system.  

He instructed the Ministry of Education and Science to develop the concept of transition to digital education in accordance with the needs of the day and the development of modern information technologies.

Rahmon noted that each teacher must be fluent in two foreign languages - Russian and English.

The head of state instructed the Ministry of Education and Science to provide for the opening of separate departments for the training of teachers of exact and natural sciences math and other exact as well as natural subjects  at teachers-training institutes in foreign languages.