Education in Tajikistan

School attendance is mandatory between the ages of seven and 17, but many children fail to attend because of economic needs and security concerns in some regions. The core years of school attendance include four years of primary school and two stages of secondary school, lasting five and two years, respectively. In 2001 preprimary enrollment was less than 6 percent of eligible children. At all levels, Tajikistan’s education system suffers from a depleted infrastructure and an acute shortage of teachers, which will increase because of the relatively high birthrate. The state-supported Soviet system remains in place, but the poor condition of the national economy and years of civil war sharply reduced funding in the early 2000s, although government spending began to increase in 2004. In 2005 the total government expenditure on education was about US$80 million, 15.9 percent of the national budget. The figure was scheduled to rise to US$108 million, 17.3 percent of the budget, in 2006. A presidential program raised the salaries of teachers by 25 percent in 2005. The official literacy rate is 98 percent, but the poor quality of education since 1991 has reduced skills in the younger generations. Some private schools and colleges have appeared in urban centers, and some Russian and Uzbek schools exist. Tajik is the main language of instruction through secondary school, but in 2003 Russian was restored as a mandatory subject. Some 33 institutions of higher learning were operating in 2003, when a constitutional amendment abolished free higher education. That year total enrollment was 96,600. [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Tajikistan.pdf Tajikistan country profile] . Library of Congress Federal Research Division (January 2007). "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain."]

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