DUSHANBE, November 2, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Education is taking different measures to tackle the problem of shortage of English teachers in the country.
A regional two-day conference on state-of-the-art technologies for the study of the English language, staged by the Ministry of Education (MoE), is closing today.
Inaugurating the conference, Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov announced on November 1 that henceforth, all students who were sent by a MoE to study English at universities abroad, particularly in Russia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, will go to work with schools but not with international organizations “as it is going on today.”
“Beginning from the next academic year, we plan to conclude tripartite agreements under which graduating students should work in the education sector of the country not less than 10 years,” the minister said.
Rahmonov noted that Tajik schools now have 839 English teaching vacancies, and in the territorial cross section the percentage of shortage of English teachers are: Gorno Badakhshan – 41 percent; Sughd – 26 percent; Khatlon – 49 percent; districts subordinate to the center (RRPs) – 54 percent; and Dushanbe – 45 percent.
The conference is part of the national program on improvement of the study of the Russian and English languages adopted in 2003.
The conference participants, who include some 60 specialists, mainly English teachers, have discussed issues related to seeking ways to improve the study of the English language.
