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Faces of Change

Improving Basic Education in Tajikistan Program
Helps Students to Master Skills in a Shorter Time

School # 2, located in a remote area of Sagridasht in Tajikistan, is about 43 miles from the district center. The holes in the walls and the ruins of a military missile in the school yard are constant reminders of the civil war that took place from 1992 to 1997.  The school was in the middle of military clashes between government and opposition troops. Heavy snowfalls in winter block the roads to the district center, leaving it isolated from the outside world for six months of the year.  Severe cold and limited supplies of electricity make it difficult for the children to study. Teachers have limited access to new information since it is difficult to travel outside of this area to participate in professional development seminars.

With the independence of Tajikistan in 1991 came the new challenge of maintaining the quality of education to which the people of Tajikistan had been accustomed. Years of civil war, withdrawal of Soviet support and a young government with few resources led to a decline in the quality of education at all levels. As the poorest country in Central Asia, Tajikistan’s progress rests on revitalizing and restructuring its education system.

But Improving Basic Education in Tajikistan (IBET) program, supported by Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has created a positive impact on this school by improving teaching/learning approaches. Through training in better teaching techniques, School #2’s teachers are now more confident and prepared to help children develop critical thinking, independent decision-making, and problem solving skills, which are vital life-long learning skills.

Firuza Safoeva, a 3rd grade-B teacher at School #2, explains how she has benefited from the training and teacher resource development.  "I have been struggling with getting my children to learn multiplication during their math lesson for three months. No matter how hard I tried and worked with them, they didn’t succeed in mastering multiplication. One day my pupils came to me asking me to organize lessons the way Aknazar Maksadov (3rd grade-A) does. With the help of Aknazar Maksadov, I now use more professional methods. My students enjoyed using the flash cards and various resources from the Learning Resource Centre and surprisingly they managed to learn the multiplication in one week as opposed to my three months of intensive work with them.”

Firuza continues: "I was thrilled and got more interested in mastering the new teaching methods from Aknazar. I would like to thank USAID and AKF. They made my work much easier and helped my students to master this skill in a much shorter period of time and made the lessons for them fun. This instilled greater interest and enthusiasm in the students to come to school."

Students concentrate on lessons at the school in Roshkala, Tajikistan. Challenges to the education system in Tajikistan include inadequate classroom facilities and limited classroom supplies.

The Improving Basic Education in Tajikistan: A Multi-dimensional Approach program initially focused on grades 1 through 4 to improve the quality of primary level education.  It worked with 18 core schools spread across three different regions in Tajikistan in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, Khatlon Oblast and Rasht Valley. Each core school spreads its training to two or three other satellite schools (of which there are 36). In 2006, the program expanded to include training initiatives for secondary level teachers to ensure that active learning occurs across all grades.

Teaching in the classroom improved as child-centered and active learning methodology were practiced by teachers and more and better teaching aids were available at the schools.

Improving Basic Education in Tajikistan (IBET) program, supported by Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has created a positive impact on this school by improving teaching/learning approaches.

The program gears attention to the school as a whole, including the state of the buildings, the competence of management, the training of the teachers and the support of the community. The project has included rehabilitation of schools, setting up a Learning Resource Centers in each school, working with the parents committee in mobilizing community support and establishing mechanisms for managing school finances.

In total, 128 school management and 54 district education staff members improved skills in the areas of effective and participatory management styles, approaches to managing finances, school documentation, and other issues pertaining to education management. The skills of 63 primary and 105 secondary key teachers were enhanced in participatory learning and teaching techniques. These skills building activities were further extended to a wide range of teachers through methodological day trainings; in total approximately 672 primary and 650 secondary teachers benefited from the cascading model.