Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 14 November, the first events within the framework of the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education were held in Tashkent with the support of the Ministry of Preschool Education and UNESCO. 

More than 1,500 participants visited Tashkent to discuss the preschool education agenda for the next 10 years. In particular, intensive discussions and lectures were held on topics such as neuroscience, technology and artificial intelligence, as well as the development of innovative teaching methods and spaces aimed at advancing the early childhood development agenda.

At the event, Finance Minister Timur Ishmetov spoke about the importance of achieving economic growth by developing the human capital of countries with economic and demographic characteristics similar to Uzbekistan, providing maximum opportunities for full-fledged and high-quality education for the young generation of states.

Emphasis was also placed on promoting government measures to support education and lifelong learning, which is one of the main Sustainable Development Goals. It was noted that the only way for young people to be competitive in the international labor market is to have professional skills. The issues of accelerating economic growth through the development of new technologies with the involvement of a new generation were analyzed.

The presence of many opportunities to attract credit resources and private capital to solve the problems facing the state was especially noted. The issues of attracting the private sector to the sphere to create the appropriate infrastructure and further increase the coverage of young people were touched upon. The problems of ensuring and improving the quality of education (content and pedagogical potential) in our country, the importance of subsidizing and expanding allocations from the state budget, as well as increasing the efficiency of allocated funds through digitalization and simplifying the financing of preschool education are considered.

In Uzbekistan over the past 5 years, 50% of the state budget, or about 10% of GDP, has been directed to the social sphere. The share of pre-school education in state budget expenditures almost doubled - from 3.7% to 6%, in GDP - from 0.6% to 1.2%.