Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on 24 May on expanding coverage of preschool educational institutions in the regions.

At preschool age, children develop cognitive activity, moral and physical qualities are formed. Therefore, a lot of work is being done in our country to organizationally and substantively improve the sphere of preschool education.

In particular, over the past four years, the number of kindergartens has grown from 5.2 thousand to 18.3 thousand. The coverage of children with preschool education has doubled and reached 60 percent. As a result of the opportunities and benefits provided by the state, the number of private and family kindergartens has increased. Today, 1.7 million children are being educated in all preschool educational institutions.

However, this is not enough. There are not enough kindergartens in 53 districts. The level of enrollment in preschool education is very low, for example, in Bandikhan, Denau, Kumkurgan districts of Surkhandarya region, Chirakchi, Kamashinsky and Kitab districts of Kashkadarya region, as well as in Yangiyul district of Tashkent region.

These and other shortcomings were highlighted in a critical meeting. The ways of eliminating them, expanding the coverage and improving the quality of preschool education are discussed.

Measures have been determined to organize 2 thousand family kindergartens for 34 thousand places in 53 districts. A proposal was approved to allow such kindergartens to hire additional workers and take twice as many children.

Emphasizing that the main thing in education and upbringing is their content, the head of state set the task of providing family kindergartens with teaching aids and teaching materials free of charge. The state will allocate 30 billion soums for these purposes. In addition, to provide such kindergartens with the necessary equipment, they will be provided with soft loans in the amount of up to 30 million soums at a rate of 5 percent per annum.

Kindergartens through public-private partnerships are another source of expanding preschool enrollment in remote areas. Today these organizations receive subsidies to cover 50 percent of the cost per child.

The President ordered to increase this share to 75 percent, as well as compensate 50 percent of the costs of private kindergartens for electricity and natural gas.

Due to the pandemic, the repayment of the principal amount of loans for under-working PPP-based kindergartens will be extended until the end of the year.

At the same time, the state continues to build new kindergartens. In 2021-2022, it is planned to organize 50 preschool educational institutions in remote settlements of 23 districts. To accommodate these kindergartens, 50 makhallas with the lowest enrollment rates and more than 250 children were selected.

The President instructed to build these kindergartens based on advanced foreign experience, provide them with modern equipment and educational literature.

It was noted that short-term courses will be organized for training and advanced training of 12 thousand kindergarten workers.

The First Deputy Minister of Preschool Education was dismissed for the shortcomings in his work. Deputy ministers and heads of all regional departments of the ministry have been demoted to acting. It was determined that the issue of their compliance with the position will be considered based on the effectiveness of further activities.