Under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Education, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Republican Education Center are collaborating to develop new student textbooks and teacher guides for Grades 1-4 Uzbek Language Arts and Mathematics instruction. This undertaking supports the Government of Uzbekistan’s goal to help children and youth prepare for life through quality education and life-long learning.

In early 2021, a team of experienced national and international specialists collaborated with primary school teachers in Uzbekistan to write new student learning standards for Grades 1-4 Uzbek Language Arts and Mathematics. These new standards were then used to develop new high-quality student textbooks and teacher guides with engaging book content and integrated student-centered teaching methods. The materials include about 980 lessons for Uzbek Language Arts and 675 lessons for Mathematics. The team also produced over 3,000 new illustrations, bringing the books’ content to life.  

On April 8, 2022, USAID’s Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program held a Product Review Workshop, where officials from the Ministry of Public Education, local research institutes, and schools learned about the process, approaches, and research underpinning the new teaching and learning materials.

“We are happy to partner with USAID under the Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program, which will bring us to the next step of the education reforms with improved students’ results to international levels. These high-quality standards and books will help the children of Uzbekistan to realize their potential and develop foundational skills needed for their success in later grades and for life,” said Shukhrat Sattorov, Director of the Republican Education Center.

After the workshop, the Product Review Group will review and provide feedback on the new teaching and learning materials, which will then be finalized by early June and submitted to the Ministry for approval. USAID, in partnership with the Ministry of Public Education, will pilot these new materials in the 2022-2023 academic year in 918 public schools in the Namangan and Syrdarya regions to confirm their relevance and potential to improve student learning outcomes in foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

After the initial pilot is complete, the books will be revised based on teachers’ feedback, and final versions printed by the Ministry of Public Education for nationwide distribution beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year. This will ensure that over 2 million students in Uzbekistan will have access to high quality textbooks, and tens of thousands of teachers will use high quality teacher guides for Uzbek Language Arts and Mathematics instruction. Improved early grade reading and mathematics instruction will lead to stronger student performance in these foundational skills and will support Uzbekistan’s goal of producing graduates with 21st century skills.