The Russia Ministry of Education in 2021 will contribute 75 million rubles (over US$ 1 million) for the “Class” project to improve the level of Russian language proficiency in Uzbekistan, stated the acting Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Public Relations of the Ministry Olga Podberezkina.
In October 2020, the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, and the charity foundation of the Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov "Art, Science, Sport" signed an agreement on the implementation of the "Class" project to increase the level of Russian language proficiency in Uzbekistan. The actors of the program are the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A.I. Herzen and the Uzbek Institute for Retraining and Advanced Training of Heads and Specialists of the Public Education System named after A. Avloni.
On February 11, an Uzbek-Russian round table on cooperation in the educational field was held online during the Expo Uzbekistan-Russia exhibition.
“The Ministry of Education will allocate 75 million rubles for the Class project in 2021. This is the most ambitious and flagship project of the Ministry in Uzbekistan,” Podberezkina said during the event.
She also noted the contribution of Alisher Usmanov, a native of Uzbekistan, who plans, before the completion of the project in 2030, "to channel funds for the salaries of teachers under the agreement."
According to the Russian Ministry of Education, as part of the first stage of the project in 2020, 32 specialists from Russia tested about 4,000 local teachers and 500 students for knowledge of the Russian language in all provinces of Uzbekistan. In 2021, the first 100 teachers and methodologists will be deployed to Uzbekistan to work in schools, Podberezkina added.
