DUSHANBE, June 7, 2013, Asia-Plus – The Ministry of Education (MoE) has denied the report released by the Iranian news agency Fars News Agency (FNA) that Tajikistan is allegedly considering switching back to the Arabic script as baseless.
Mahmoudkhon Shodiyev a spokesman of a MoE, told Asia-Plus on June 7 that the major topic of a meeting of Tajik Minister of Education Nouriddin Saidov with Iranian deputy Minister of Education, Ali-Asghar Yazdani, and Iranian Ambassador to Tajikistan, Ali-Asghar Sherdoust, was only the issue of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Iran in the field of education.
“The issue of switching to the Arabic alphabet was not touched upon at the meeting at all,” Shodiyev said.
We will recall that an article entitled “Tajik Minister of Education: We Want Iran to Assist Us with Publication of Textbooks” that was posted on FNA’s website on June 6 quoted Iranian Ambassador to Tajikistan, Ali-Asghar Sherdoust, as saying that Tajikistan has adopted the law, under which it will switch to the Arabic script within the next ten years and “the Tajik Government considers that Iran is the only country that could help.”
He reportedly said this here on June 5 during a meeting with Tajik Minister of Education, Nouriddin Saidov.
