President Emomali Rahmon has sharply criticized poor work of the Higher Attestation Commission, or VAK (government body responsible for overseeing the process of evaluating advanced academic theses).
His criticism, directed at members of the Higher Attestation Commission, came during an address to a meeting met with representatives of science and education of the country that took place at the Kokhi Borbad State Complex in Dushanbe on May 30.
The head of state pointed to the Commission’s failure to correct the situation and prevent plagiarism.
The president said that Dissernet (a volunteer community in Russia) had identified plagiarism among 150 Tajik scientists (candidates and doctors of sciences); seven of them lost their diplomas, says the Tajik president’s official website.
The head of state also accused the Higher Attestation Commission of protecting plagiarists and concealing their actions and emphasized that the Commission had failed to prove the fallacy of the Dessernet’s conclusions about plagiarism.
The president expressed concern that some degree candidates do not write their theses themselves and they even don’t understand their essence.
More than 60 Tajik researchers and government officials are on the Dissernet’s list. Over the past three-four years, more than 60 Tajik researchers and government officials have been busted for academic plagiarism.
Dissernet makes the exercise of comparing and contrasting the plagiarists’ work with the original easy by creating side-by-side tables of the copied sections and the source.
Tajikistan created its own Higher Attestation Commission, government body responsible for overseeing the process of evaluating advanced academic theses, only in 2014 and some experts consider that it will take a long time to build up its own digital database to help prevent plagiarism.
Meanwhile, the purpose of the meeting with of science and education was reportedly to review the results of the previous meeting with representatives of intelligentsia, the current state of scientific development and its prospects, the issues of raising the level of learning natural and mathematical sciences, developing technical thinking, supporting initiatives in the direction of invention, as well as the quality and effectiveness of training scientific personnel in the country.
In his address, Emomali Rahmon reportedly deeply analyzed the results of the work of scientists during the years of independence, and set specific tasks for the Government of the country and related structures to find ways to meet the needs of the time and to serve it in the development and progress of the state.
The president stated that the government considers science as one of the main factors of the country's development and scientists as a great intellectual resource of the society, and it has provided all opportunities for its comprehensive development and improvement of the social conditions of scientific workers.
It was emphasized that the government paid primary attention to the issue of education and science, and during more than 30 years of independence, they built more than 3900 institutions of general education, including new type institutions, namely gymnasiums, lyceums and colleges, as well as universities and institutes.
The head of state obligated the government to demand effective activity in the field of science and to strictly control the implementation of activities aimed at this goal.
The president reportedly instructed the responsible persons and related government bodies to improve the quality of education in higher and secondary institutions, adapt the field of education to modern times and other leading factors of society. It was also considered necessary to pay primary attention to the issues of raising the level and quality of textbooks.
Руcский
