DUSHANBE, July 10, 2012, Asia-Plus — In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Minister of Education Nouriddin Saidov noted on July 9 that there is no any necessity in returning to the Arabic script in Tajikistan.
“Experience of our neighbors has shown that there is no necessity in that,” the minister said, commenting on numerous articles about the necessity of returning to the Arabic script, published in Tajik-language print media.
He noted that the Arabic-based Persian alphabet was being instructed in schools and that was enough.
On the suspending teaching the fundamentals of religions in secular schools, Saidov said that the country’s education system was completely deideologized and depoliticized. “Decrees on depoliticizing and deideologizing society were passed in Tajikistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” the minister said.
“It means that school is a secular institution and neither Islam nor any other religion should be taught in our schools,” Saidov said.
We will recall that “Knowledge of Islam” was introduced as compulsory coursework in Tajik secular schools in September 2009. The Tajik authorities, however, suspended the teaching of this discipline in secular schools in the next academic year.
