DUSHANBE, May 25, 2016, Asia-Plus – Tajik Minister of Education and Science Nouriddin Said yesterday issued an order banning the Last Bell ceremony in high schools this year.

The Last Bell is a traditional ceremony in the schools of Russia and some other post-Soviet countries.  The celebration is carried out just after all the studies are finished, but before the final exams.  The date usually falls on 25 May.

The pupils that are about to leave the school do the classic school uniform or formal dress; for the girls it has become customary since the 1990s to attire in the Soviet-style school uniform with white aprons and white bows in the hair.  A symbolic last school bell is rung, usually by a first-grade.

In Tajikistan, the date of the Last Bell, which in Tajikistan is called the “Bell of Maturity,” falls on June 7.

Last year, for the first time the “Bell of Maturity” ceremony was held in the schools of Tajikistan without participation of parents.