USAID to provide a grant of 165 billion soums to Uzbekistan to develop ICT and English teaching

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has decided to allocate a grant of US$19.5 million (165 billion soums) to support reforms in the field of public education in Uzbekistan. The press service of the Ministry of National Education of Uzbekistan reports.

Grant information is available on the US government website www.grants.gov.

The funds will be used to transform approaches to school management, teacher training, teaching, development and use of teaching materials (traditional and ICT), which will lead to an improvement in student achievement.

The program will also develop methods and strategies to increase transparency and accountability in schools, as well as improve school administration and service delivery.

In particular, within the framework of the project, the Ministry of Public Education will receive a scientifically-based strategy for the implementation of the IT Nation initiative, which aims to increase students’ knowledge and skills in the field of information technology. It is planned to integrate modern information technologies into the educational process.

The implementation of this component will make it possible to contribute to the implementation of the third of the five initiatives of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the organization of social, spiritual and educational work on the new system. The third initiative of the head of Uzbekistan is aimed at the organization of effective use of computer technologies and the Internet by the population and young people.

One of the problems in the field of education is the lack of tools for an objective assessment of children’s knowledge and skills. With the support of USAID, Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA) will be conducted in the secondary schools in Uzbekistan. These studies will help identify gaps in children’s learning and take steps to address them.

As part of the project, USAID will assist the Ministry of Public Education in implementing the English Speaking Nation project, aimed at improving the teaching of English in schools through the introduction of modern teaching methods.

It should be noted that this grant is one of the first projects implemented under the memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Public Education of Uzbekistan and the US Government on cooperation to support the education sector of Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan’s Minister of National Education Sherzod Shermatov and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Ambassador Alice Wells and Deputy Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for Central and South Asia, Javier Piedra signed the document in Tashkent on 27 February 2019.