In Uzbekistan, 95.8% of six-year-old children are enrolled in preparatory groups for school

The implementation of large-scale reforms In Uzbekistan, has ushered in a new era in preschool education. These reforms aimed at raising preschool children to be healthy and well-rounded, creating necessary conditions for them, strengthening the material and technical base of the preschool education system, increasing the share of the non-state sector, improving the quality of preschool educational services, and introducing effective forms and methods into the educational process.

As a result of these reforms, new, modern educational institutions were built in remote areas to replace old, dilapidated buildings.

The favorable conditions created for developing public-private partnerships in preschool education were among the first to lay a solid foundation for increasing the share of the non-state sector and expanding the range of services they provide.

Analyzing past years, since 2018, the implementation of the public-private partnership system has increased the number of non-state preschool educational organizations to 31,342.

Additionally, to further improve the preschool education system and create equal opportunities for children to access high-quality preschool education services in all regions, new alternative forms of preschool education have been introduced.

Specifically, mobile groups have been established using 72 buses in 156 mahallas located in remote areas where building preschool educational institutions is impossible. These groups, organized in playgrounds, have involved about 9,500 children aged 3-6 years.

Furthermore, within the framework of international projects and in cooperation with UNICEF, 20 "Mixed-Age Preschool Educational Groups" (play groups) were organized in Namangan and Khorezm regions as an alternative form of preschool education, encompassing a total of 496 children.

In collaboration with the World Bank, as part of the "Early Child Development" project, "Early Development Centers" operating under 3 models in Namangan and Samarkand regions have involved 1,712 children.

In this case, 764 children were covered under the first model (visits to families with children up to 6 years old not in preschool), 861 children under the second model (play groups), and 87 children under the third model (visits to families with children aged 2 to 6 years with health-related disabilities).

Looking back at previous years, the difference between children who attended kindergarten and those who didn't was noticeable when they entered 1st grade. This was due to the lack or shortage of kindergartens in thousands of mahallas across the republic, creating difficulties not only for children but also for teachers.

To create equal opportunities for all 6-year-old children in the regions of the republic, 7,601 compulsory one-year free preparatory groups for primary education have been organized, providing quality preparation for primary education to more than 182,000 6-year-old children.

The implementation of such reforms has, in turn, contributed to attracting qualified teachers and management personnel to the sector, and to date has created employment opportunities for about 300,000 previously unemployed women.

As a result of the reforms carried out in our country, the number of all types of preschool educational organizations in the republic has reached 38,233, with the coverage of children in preschool education reaching 75.0 percent, and the coverage of 6-year-old children in school preparatory groups reaching 95.8 percent.

In implementing the "Uzbekistan - 2030" strategy and achieving its target indicators for preschool education, priority tasks have been identified, such as achieving full coverage of children with preschool education by 2030 and full coverage of 6-year-old children with school preparatory groups.

Within the framework of these priority tasks, efforts will be made to fully digitize the preschool education system, organize and manage the introduction of modern information and communication technologies in the sector, introduce modern pedagogical technologies and new alternative models for preparing children for school, further expand the share of the non-state sector, as well as implement measures to build new modern state preschool educational organizations based on existing needs in mahallas where such facilities are absent or coverage is low, and reconstruct existing ones in the regions. As a result, the preschool education system will be further improved.

Sherzod Mukhammedov,

Director of the Department of the Ministry of Preschool and School Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan