Call for Modern Teaching in Schools

The Tajik authorities are calling for rapid educational reforms, which NBCentralAsia experts say should concentrate on improving teaching methods and modernising the curriculum.



On April 19, Abduqohir Nazirov, governor of the northern Sogd region, said the school system is in urgent need of an overall, saying the biggest crisis lies in the shortage of teachers and the poor state of school buildings, according to the Varorud news agency.



President Imomali Rahmon has also flagged up the crisis, and last week Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov said teaching methods must change to meet modern requirements.



NBCentralAsia experts say reform should focus on introducing new teaching methods and updating a curriculum that has hardly changed since Soviet times.



According to Nodir Amonov, an expert at Pulse, an organisation which supports educational reforms, the system now in use is one where teachers do all the talking while pupils listen passively, whereas what is needed is a change to modern interactive teaching methids.



“There is no close interaction or active pupil involvement in the education process, and no lively discussions in the classroom. Teachers are unable to generate a discussion about some theme, either among the pupils or between pupil and teacher,” he said.



Mahmadnazar Rajabov, director of the Tajik Association for Critical Thinking, proposes that academics and practicing teachers get together in a “big laboratory” to develop teaching aids for all school subjects.



Rajabov’s organisation has already trained some teachers in how to get pupils thinking critically to help them engage with learning material. Those who have taken these new teaching methods into the classroom have seen very positive results, he says.



But a representative of an international education organisation, who did not want to be named, was less optimistic, saying that given the extent of the problems in the education system, introducing modern teaching methods in all the schools will take at least 10 or 12 years.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)