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THE SPIRITUAL AND MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF LIFELONG EDUCATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
U. K. Tolipov
Spirituality is integral to a personality. It manifests itself in the need to live and create in accordance with ideals of truth, goodness and beauty. The components of spiritual culture include intellectual, artistic, aesthetic, moral, environmental, legal and political culture in human relationships. Great thinkers of the past classified love for children, devotion to family, respecting the memory of ancestors, industriousness, patriotism, humaneness, a sense of justice and mutual tolerance, mercy, and a love of one's native language as living sources of the spirituality of a nation. Additionally, taking care of the next generation is seen as an expression of eternal spiritual, moral and pedagogical values that are common to human nature while being based on national and ethnic foundations.
In order to initiate the next generation into the spiritual and moral foundations of their nation and an understanding of the national idea of independence at all stages of lifelong education in Uzbekistan, the curriculum includes subjects that reveal the essence of the basic concepts of national and international values. The curriculum provides for the following series of disciplines studying the basics of spirituality:
a) in all institutions of general education: grades 1-4: The A to Z of Ethics (Culture of Behavior); grades 5-6: The Sense of Homeland; grades 7-9: The National Independence Idea and Basics of Spirituality;
b) in academic lyceums and vocational colleges: The National Independence Idea: Basic Concepts and Principles; The National Independence Idea and Basics of Spirituality;
c) in higher education institutions: Bachelor's program: The National Independence Idea and Basics of Spirituality; Master's program: The National Independence Idea and Basics of Spirituality;
d) in teachers' advanced training and retraining institutions: The National Idea; The Communication Culture; The Topical Subjects.
One of the major objectives of upbringing and education in multinational Uzbekistan is to develop in the young generation a sense of patriotism as a basis for inter-ethnic communication, and as a spiritual and social value. The president of Uzbekistan, I. A. Karimov, emphasizes that «our holy duty is to give our precious children knowledge meeting modern requirements, to bring up and raise real patriots» (I. A. Karimov, vol. 7, p. 168). In the modern context, patriotism is understood as love for the homeland, willingness to fulfill one's constitutional duty, show patriotic feelings,
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have a patriotic outlook and practice social tolerance in communication with other nations. Patriotism is an interest in one's homeland, Motherland, the country, its past, present and future, respect to parents and relatives, an attitude of care towards the symbols of the state and an understanding of their meaning. Furthermore, patriotism is a responsibility for everything happening in the country, willingness to live the interests of society, realizing the need to be useful to society, etc. The modern, young generation has mainly a patriotic mindset, believing in «the great future of Uzbekistan». Young people want to live in a highly developed country that provides decent life to its citizens and respects their rights and freedoms. The State Program «The Year of the Harmoniously Developed Generation» (2010) provides for the improvement of the quality of education in all sectors of the educational system.
In the modern world, education becomes increasingly multifunctional and, to some degree, it is a tool of consolidating an ethnically diverse population at the crossing of two vectors: the global education space and the historical and cultural layer of traditions and rites that help achieve values that are important to everyone but necessarily linked to universal values.
«The people's state of mind is influenced by the climate created in society, where the human qualities inherent in our nation from the earliest days, such as mutual understanding, mutual tolerance, openness and tolerance, kindness, hospitality and emotional generosity, are exhibited to the fullest extent,» the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan I. A. Karimov underlines. (I. A. Karimov, “Uzbekistan: 16 Years of Independent Development” - T.: 2007, p. 21).
Consequently, each teacher must have a clear understanding of the objectives set before him/her from the perspective of the national idea, take into account history with its «challenges» and bring up the young generation in the spirit of true patriotism on the basis of inter-ethnic communication, which will promote the self-consciousness of peoples and friendship between them, ultimately leading to the sustainable development of global civilization.
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