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TAJIKISTAN ON THE WAY TOWARDS GLOBALIZATION OF EDUCATION
A. A. Rakhmonov
The paper explores system education modernization in the Republic of Tajikistan, which is designed to the training of highly qualified specialists, able to take on the responsibility for efficient advance of the country to the sustainable development course.
Key words: international partnership, globalization of education, unified educational space, three-stage personnel training model.
Since the attainment of independence in 1991, the system of higher education in the Republic of Tajikistan has undergone a radical change. The modernization of the educational system is well under way, with one of the main areas being the transition to a new credit-based model. The current priority is to train highly skilled specialists capable of taking responsibility for the successful movement of the country toward a sustainable level of development.
The Republic of Tajikistan joining the world community and signing international conventions and instruments, along with the integration processes in the educational system, exchanges of students and researchers, the recognition of diplomas, and many other things, have all contributed to the development of education, and paved the way to broader international cooperation, which should be developed in many areas. A number of intergovernmental agreements in the field of education were developed within the framework of a single educational space in the Commonwealth. As a sovereign state, Tajikistan ratified these documents, and they are currently being implemented in the educational system of the country. One of the major tasks of the educational system in the Republic is to support new forms of integration of science and education, develop cooperative approaches to establishing educational standards on the basis of the latest achievements in global science, and carry out joint expert examination of curricula and textbooks. At present, the Republic is carrying out these and other transformations, keeping pace with the times by ensuring its appropriate development as an independent state.
Indeed, education is becoming the main factor of the revival, preservation and development of spiritual culture, self-identity and self-fulfillment. As one of the global challenges of the 21st century, education is regarded as one of the priorities within political, economic and social systems. A deep crisis in various spheres of life of the world community has undermined human morale, and laid the foundations for the dissemination of hatred, bloodshed, terrorism, and destruction. Despite these negative developments, the world community is first of all struggling for the humanization of society, so that this process could serve as an intellectual indicator and promote positive behaviors and thinking among individuals in society. The humanization of the content of education also regulates the process, and can ensure the safety of human life, society and nature.
As a sovereign state and a member of the international community, Tajikistan is mobilizing its intellectual potential for the implementation of this vital
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process. In connection with this, the National Strategy for the Development of Education until the Year 2020 has been developed to become an essential document for promoting the modernization of education in the Republic. It defines the basic directions of the state policy in education, and regulates the development of the system which is very important strategically in the context of new social relations. The components of the scope of the document define the place, goals and objectives of education in the new historical era. It provides for solving the issues of historical self-identity and absorbing traditional and panhuman values as a basis for the development of a high culture of succession of national traditions, moral and cultural values, and democratic governance. The development of the Program was also driven by the need for radical transformations with a view to improving the quality of education and solving the problems faced by the educational system in the new socio-economic landscape. Its goals are to:
(1) provide conditions for meeting the demands of individuals, society and the labor market for high quality education by creating new institutional regulatory mechanisms in the field of education; (2) update the structure and content of education; (3) develop the fundamental nature and practical focus of educational programs; and (4) build a system of continuing education. To achieve these goals, the Republic is pursuing the following strategic tasks: (a) improve the effectiveness of the education management system; (b) improve the methodological support and human resources in the educational system; (c) improve economic mechanisms in the educational system; (d) make high quality education accessible to all population groups; (e) improve the legal framework governing the operation of the national educational system on the basis of further democratization of education management; (f) restructure the system of professional education and staff training in accordance with the recommendations of the International Standard Classification of Education; (g) train highly skilled specialists capable of solving professional tasks in the context of the informatization and implementation of new scientific technologies; (h) create a system for the assessment of the quality of education; (i) improve the methodological and scientific support of the educational process; (j) improve the physical infrastructure of the educational system; (k) create mechanisms for attracting resources from different sectors of the economy to the education sector; (l) raise the social status of education workers, improve the provision of the educational system with financial and human resources, and train education managers.
Higher educational institutions in Tajikistan are currently involved in a staged transition to the credit-based system of education, and are also expanding the application of new information technologies in the educational process. The system has been introduced in almost all institutions in the Republic. The transition to the credit-based system of education will allow for the greater academic mobility of the country’s teachers and researchers, in cooperation with higher educational institutions of the Commonwealth and other countries.
The current State Standards for Higher Professional Education in the Republic of Tajikistan mainly provide for the development of a multi-level system of training in the areas and specialties that allow for a flexible response to the needs of the labor market and forecasts of their change. An analysis of the international systems of higher and post-graduate professional education shows that the three-
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level credit-based system of education (including the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees) is the most common and recognized model in the leading countries of the world. The transition to such a system can provide the best results, because it ensures that its graduates will be in demand in a rapidly changing environment of the labor market. The experience of the leading universities of the world shows that the development of higher professional and post-graduate education requires that a model be created for the interaction of universities with competitive sectors of the economy, where both educational programs can be implemented, and innovation can be introduced in the real sector of production. The practices of interactions between universities and the real sector of the economy are very common in developed countries, and should be introduced in the Republic of Tajikistan too. In 2013, the Republic of Tajikistan adopted the Regulation on PhD Dissertation Defense, and dissertation councils will begin to operate in January 2015. Providing the necessary conditions for quality assurance, accessibility, equality and effectiveness of the educational system is a priority goal in the field of education in the Republic of Tajikistan.
The problem of training teachers has become very relevant during the years of independence, because as an independent nation, the Republic of Tajikistan needed highly skilled teachers. The shortage of teachers became notable due to the civil war which had led to migration, with a huge number of highly skilled workers leaving the country. In the current context, retraining and requalification are particularly topical issues. Therefore, the role and importance of continuing education as a process of training adults, and the identification of psychological foundations for training of mature age professionals, are significantly higher.
Continuing education involves a certain relationship between all the stages of the learning process, and as such plays a major role in modern education. The nature of continuing education depends on the situation, because it primarily involves changing the perception of the reality, understanding the need for transformation (a problem), finding ways of transformation (solutions), choosing an optimal one (choosing a solution matching the capabilities of a system), implementing the chosen way of transformation (transformation tactics), and assessing the result (a new problem). By following this approach, an individual continues his or her education (gets a second degree, completes skills upgrading courses, writes a dissertation, etc.). For an individual, education is just a means of adapting to changes in the social environment, and also of self-fulfillment. Continuing education requires not only educational activities in an external environment, but also constant inner education as a transformation under the influence of the newly learned knowledge.
In his address to the Tajik youth on April 24, 2010, the President of Tajikistan stated the following: “The essence of the state policy in education is to continuously reform the system of training at all levels, and its objective is to radically improve the system of education and training of the workforce.” It follows from the above that continuing education is a priority issue brought to life by the present stage of scientific and technological development, as well as by political, socio-economic and cultural changes.
As one of the leading educational institutions of the country, the Sadriddin Aini Tajik State Pedagogical University contributes to the implementation of
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educational programs in the Republic of Tajikistan. The university has 13 faculties, specialized in various teaching specialties, offering 76 educational programs of higher professional education (for Specialist Bachelors and Masters) and 37 postgraduate programs. Courses are available both as full-time and distance learning options. The University’s mission is to create innovation, research, and human resource bases for the development of a new, innovative educational system in the Republic of Tajikistan. The University runs the Center for Skills Upgrading and Retraining of Teachers, where teachers from urban and rural schools can improve their professional level and knowledge by learning innovative teaching techniques. In addition, the University has a center for training young teachers, where they learn innovative and interactive methods of teaching. This skills upgrading course is compulsory, and trainees are awarded a certificate upon its completion. Every year, teachers of the University carry out on-site seminars on the modern educational problems for teachers in rural schools.
Teachers from the following universities have delivered lectures and master classes at different faculties of our University to improve the assessment of the quality of knowledge on the basis of agreements on cooperation in education with CIS universities (more than 50): L.N. Tolstoy Tula State Pedagogical University, Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Bashkir State Pedagogical University, M. Sholokhov Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow Linguistic University, Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, and others. All skills upgrading courses, educational and methodological seminars and master classes offered at the University are aimed at making our teachers more professional, as they are delivered by highly skilled specialists, are in line with the current level of science and culture, and encourage professional development in the course of learning.
It is worth emphasizing again that the main task of our institution is to develop students into professional teachers, capable of solving diverse problems related to the training and upbringing of schoolchildren in Tajikistan. Therefore, the improvement of professional training of teachers requires not only new, more effective methods of managing the educational process in teachers’ training institutions, but also a revised structure and content of the subject-specific training of students to raise it to a new level of teaching.
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