Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 22 June, a delegation of Uzbekistan headed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov visited the Russian Federation.

According to the program of the visit, the second meeting of the Joint Commission at the level of the governments of Uzbekistan and Russia was held in Moscow.

Within the framework of the meeting of the Joint Commission, in the presence of the Head of the Government of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov and the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of education was signed. 

On the part of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Agreement was signed by the head of the State Inspectorate for Supervision of the Quality of Education under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan Ulugbek Tashkenbaev, on the part of the Russian Federation - by the head of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Education and Science Anzor Muzaev.

According to this memorandum, the Parties came to an understanding on the need to develop mutual interest in strengthening equal cooperation in the field of assessing the quality of education, monitoring the education system. The parties will make efforts to make this interaction lasting and constructive.

Joint activities under this Memorandum will be carried out in such areas as information exchange on legislative and other normative legal acts regulating the activities of the Parties in the field of education, the experience accumulated by the Parties in the development and planning of the education process, the development of scientific research and scientific and practical developments, expanding the interaction of the Parties in the field of assessing the quality of education at all levels of education, studying the educational systems of states, including in the comparative analysis of systems for assessing the quality of education.

A special responsibility is assigned to the Parties in order to assist in ensuring the participation of specialists from both countries in international programs for assessing the quality of education, based on their mutual interests.

The Memorandum envisages the organization of international thematic forums, conferences, meetings, seminars and exhibitions, the exchange of scientific, methodological, information materials on the problems of assessing the quality of education.

It is worth noting that the State Inspectorate for Supervision of the Quality of Education from the first days of its functioning, starting in 2017, has been closely cooperating with the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Education.

The first practical step on the path of cooperation was the development and signing on May 30, 2019 in Urgench of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Education, Qualifications and Academic Degrees.

This agreement allowed the citizens of the two countries to continue their education without going through the recognition procedure, which had a positive effect on increasing the academic mobility of young people.

The signed Memorandum is aimed at further improving the regulatory legal acts in the field of control and regulation of the educational process, certification and accreditation of educational organizations, simplification of the procedures for recognizing diplomas obtained abroad, ensuring transparency in assessing the quality of education, licensing non-governmental educational organizations, developing guidelines, educational and methodological manuals, test materials and preparation of testers. The opening in a relatively short time of 12 branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan makes it possible to expand the coverage of young people with higher education, the range of training in popular areas and specialties. The Inspectorate for Education of Uzbekistan and Rosakredagenstvo actively cooperate in licensing and accreditation of these branches.

In addition, cooperation is underway to prepare for international studies PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, TALIS.

Since the beginning of 2019, with the participation of Russian experts, seminars and conferences have been regularly organized in Moscow, Tashkent and Samarkand aimed at training trainers and improving the qualifications of more than 3,000 teachers. Despite the pandemic conditions, online training was conducted for teachers from Uzbekistan with the support of the World Bank’s READ program.

It is worth emphasizing that, together with specialists from both sides, 4 teaching aids were developed, containing information about international research, about the features of assessing the competencies of students for general educational organizations.

As plans in this direction, the participation of Uzbekistan in the third stage of the READ program, the exchange of experience in preparation for international studies on the assessment of the quality of education PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, TALIS, continued cooperation through seminars and the development of teaching aids, training and professional development specialists.

It was also decided to work in collaboration on the assessment and development of critical thinking and problem solving skills, digital, functional and financial literacy, communication among youth, development, implementation and improvement of key tools for assessing 21st century skills.