Citing vice-speaker of Russia’s upper house (Federation Council) of parliament Yevgeny Bushmin, Parlamentskaya Gazeta, a mouthpiece of the Federation Council, says Russia will double the number of Russian teachers working with schools in Tajikistan.
Of 29 teachers who arrived in Tajikistan at the start of this academic year eight have returned to Russia while the remaining 21 teachers will remain in Tajikistan for one more year.
Thus, more than 50 Russian teachers will work with Russian-language schools in Tajikistan beginning on September 1 this year, teaching a variety of subjects, including math, chemistry, biology and computer science.
Bushmin noted that participation of Russian teachers in work with compatriots in the CIS nations and in promoting the Russian language in the post-Soviet space is not enough.
The Tajik side has shown a big interest in this project and asked to send another 30 teachers to work with schools in Tajikistan in a new academic year,” Bushmin was quoted as saying.
Recall, Russia at the start of this academic year sent 30 teachers to secondary schools in Tajikistan. Teachers from the Russian regions of Kostroma, Kemerovo, Bashkortostan, Daghestan, and Tatarstan have arrived in Tajikistan to teach subjects such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, Russian, and others at secondary schools where teaching is conducted in Russian.
The government-sponsored Russian World foundation, which promotes the Russian language and culture abroad, noted in August that Russia has provided Tajikistan with 20 tons of textbooks on various subjects by September 1, 2017.
The education sector in Tajikistan has been in decline after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Many Tajik nationals reportedly described the effort to bring over Russian teachers as a much-needed remedy.
Last August, as the participants of the pilot project mustered in Moscow, Valentina Matviyenko, the chair of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, reportedly told them that “your work is in effect that of goodwill ambassadors, envoys of Russian knowledge and culture.”
On April 5 this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting in Moscow with his Tajik counterpart, Sirojiddin Aslov, that there are plans to build another five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan, but he provided no timeframe.
