DUSHANBE, August 23, Asia-Plus -- Graduates from teachers’ training institutes refusing to work with schools will be obliged to pay off money spent on their training in legal form, Nouriddin Saidov, the head of the department for higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Education (MoE), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

According to him, it concerns only graduates who studied in the federally funded groups.   “This demand is provided for by government’s resolution of April 4, 1996 about training of specialists with higher and secondary special education on contractual basis,” the MoE official said, noting that it is a forced step dictated by an acute shortage of teachers in the country, especially in rural areas.   Tajikistan now has more than 6,000 teaching vacancies.

“Every year, our teachers’ training institutions turn out more than 5,000 specialists, however, 40 percent do not work with schools,” said Saidov, “Hundreds of graduates from teachers’ training institutes are laving for Russia seeking better employment opportunities, justifying this by low wages of teachers and lack of proper living conditions in the country.”     

On the personnel problems, Saidov said the ministry is trying to provide schools in the provinces with sufficient teachers.    According to him, they are planning to send fifth-year students at the teachers’ training institutes to provinces to work with local schools.   

Said noted that teachers working with rural schools are exempted from military service and have various other privileges, including allotment of land for housing, preferential long-term loans, etc.