Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In his message to Parliament for 2023, the President focused on the problems of education. 2023 has been declared the year of “Care for the Human Being and Quality Education”. It is necessary to continue the initiated reforms in this area and improve the quality of education in educational institutions.

Funds allocated for education in Uzbekistan are increasing every year. If in 2021, 2.9 trillion soums were allocated from the state budget to the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, and to the Ministry of Public Education -22.1 trillion soums, then in 2022 to the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education. amounted to 4.1 trillion soums, and the Ministry of Public Education 25.8 trillion soums.

Improving the quality of education has become one of the important directions of the educational policy for the development of New Uzbekistan.

In the Development Strategy for 2022-2026, much attention is paid to increasing the coverage of the population at all levels of education, since the transition to an innovative economy requires highly qualified personnel. The main measures envisaged by the Strategy include measures aimed at increasing the enrollment of young people in higher education up to 50% by 2030 and improving the quality of education, primarily on the basis of: 1) increasing the total number of universities to 200, including non-state universities to at least 50 units; 2) creation of at least 1 non-state university in each region based on the needs of the region in personnel with higher education; 3) inclusion of 10 potential universities in QS and other international rankings by 2026; 4) further granting of academic and financial independence to state universities, etc.

Particular attention is paid to improving the quality of education in our country, which, according to the results of the assessment of general secondary education by the World Bank, ranks 57th among 174 countries, gaining 474 points. At the same time, at present, the potential of system assessment and assessment management are being implemented at the level of international standards.

The trend towards an increase in the number of higher educational institutions, including branches of foreign and private universities, an increase in state quotas for higher education, as well as the allocation of separate quotas for girls and from low-income families and graduates of secondary education with disabilities has a positive impact on increasing the coverage of young people with higher education.

At present, the number of higher educational institutions exceeds 180, of which more than 25 are foreign higher educational institutions.

Maintaining such a basic component of human potential as the level of education.

The policy of developing the education system aims to significantly reduce the risks of losing human capital, reducing productivity and incomes of the future generation.

Human potential largely depends on the level of education. Increasing the share of people with high intellectual potential in society allows increasing labor productivity in the economy, significantly reducing the risk of lower incomes for the next generation, determines the opportunities for increasing the competitiveness of the economy, increasing labor productivity and overcoming “poverty traps”.

Accumulated human capital in Uzbekistan reflects Uzbekistan’s current capabilities and potential. In the Human Development Index report, the average years of schooling is 11.9 years.

However, the Human Capital Index of Uzbekistan, according to the World Bank, shows that the labor productivity of a child born today in Uzbekistan, upon reaching the age of majority, will be 62% of its potential productivity, which is ensured on condition of full education and good health.

Therefore, addressing the challenges of raising the level of education has great potential to stimulate human development.

Priority areas for human development by 2030 should take into account a number of problems in the field of education, with a focus on:

1) Increasing enrollment in higher education, which is relatively low in the world.

2) Improving the quality of education and professional competence of teaching staff. It is also necessary to improve the positions of universities in Central Asia and Uzbekistan in international university rankings, such as Quacquarelli Symonds and in certain disciplinary areas, primarily STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

3) Reducing the share of public spending on education, while increasing the share of the private sector in education.

4) The reduction of gender inequality, which is observed at all levels of the education system, but is especially pronounced in the higher education system.

5) Increasing the innovative aspect and quality of state institutions.

6) Uzbekistan does not use the potential to attract foreign students to its universities, the number of foreign students studying at the universities of Uzbekistan did not exceed 0.2% of university students.

When determining the target parameters for the development of the education sector until 2030, in order for the benefits from the adopted long-term programs, primarily from investments in human capital, to materialize, it is advisable to prioritize activities in the field of education.

Based on the proposed model, the main factors influencing education were identified and predictive parameters were calculated.

First, educational activities are aimed at increasing enrollment in education, primarily by increasing enrollment in higher education to 50%.

Secondly, in fact, a direct reduction in government spending on education cannot be fully justified, due to the large number of young people, and the fact that total spending per 1 pupil (student) is small compared to UMI countries, amounting to 8.3% in Uzbekistan from total spending (versus 42.2% in UMI countries).

Third, demand factors such as demographic change and the targeting of increased enrollment in tertiary education will put pressure on the budget, driving up spending in the education sector.

The target priority is to maintain consolidated public spending on education up to 55% of total spending (or 6.8% of GDP), and offset the growth in total education spending by attracting and stimulating the private sector.

Fourth, one should take into account the importance of increasing the share of university graduates in scientific and technical areas as a driver for introducing innovations and improving infrastructure. This will not increase the average number of years of study, but will increase the Innovation Index and the General Knowledge System Index (Figure 2) by an additional 0.103 points (from 0.475 to 0.578).

Fifth, gender equality in education needs to be prioritized as a matter of urgency, although it will take a long period of time to improve gender aspects in the education system to significantly affect the parity in the education system, which in the base case will only increase from 0.759 to 0.93 from 2021 to 2030.

Sixth, as a result of improving the quality of education by improving the quality of state regulation by 2 times in Uzbekistan, by 2030, the share of university graduates is likely to rise to the level of 80%.

Seventh, at the same time, there is a direct impact of quality control of higher education on the share of graduates with higher education (in terms of the efficiency of public administration from 0.89 to 1.3 by 2030).

Simultaneously with the completed scenario, the model allows to reproduce the estimates. As the results of the impact of ongoing interventions on the indicators of sustainable development goals until 2030 show, significant positive changes are achieved for Uzbekistan in raising the level of education (from primary to higher) to countries with upper-middle incomes.

As a result, achieving the level of targets for enrollment in higher education up to 50-60% will increase the duration of education up to 8.2 years (according to the indicator of duration of study UNICEF 15+) and improve the indices for the general knowledge system by 1.5 times and innovation by 2 times.

At present, achieving a decent economic level and improving the quality of life of the population require both the development of technical and technological capabilities and the strengthening of innovation processes, as well as the development of the education system.

The proposed social and economic policy measures in the field of education can pave the way for surpassing the achievements in human capital and the quality of life of previous generations.

Naila Ibragimova,

IPMI project manager