The collapse of education in Uzbekistan: how the World Bank is driving the country into the Stone Age

The discussion about the quality of education in Uzbekistan has long gone beyond classrooms and statistical reports. In official statistics, everything is fine and wonderful. However, an acute controversy is unfolding in social networks and professional forums. Government reforms, data from international organizations and the harsh reality that ordinary families face every day collide in it.

Closed colleges and children on the street

At first glance, the citizens of Uzbekistan in their responses paint a picture of a systemic collapse that began with a reform that reduced school education to 9 years.

"Our youth has no specialty. After graduation, there is nowhere to study at least working specialties: turner, welder, car mechanic, electrician and so on. Everything was closed: colleges, colleges, technical schools. Not everyone is able to study and get into the institute. Knowledge is very low. And there is no money to pay for the contract," writes one of the users of the social network.

This quote reflects the main problem: the gap between the need for working specialties and access to vocational education. The author of the comment, as well as other users, point out that paid tuition at lyceums and colleges has become a serious obstacle for large and low-income families.

"The study is paid (and considerable). Clubs are paid, sports sections are paid. And the salary of parents is not the same as it is shown. There are several children in the families. It is not possible to learn all the children, so it turns out: those who have enough money to study, they study. The rest are on the street, at the bazaar, leaving for work. Who can," says another comment.

In the next remark, there is also a cry from the soul of a person who sincerely worries about the future of the country.

"The fact that young people do not study after 14 is a consequence of the reform of the transition to 9 years in school. Then paid tuition at colleges, lyceums. Large families simply cannot pay. A generation of those who have not received an education has grown up. Now these kids from 2003, and this is the first year of transition, are now 35, they have their own families, and now their children are following their path. Right now, those who were able to get a higher education came to schools and medical institutions. Unfortunately, the level really fell due to the fact that even the smartest children from low—income families could not study," the short publication says.

The success of the World Bank is a disaster for the republic

Objective data published by international organizations confirm that there are problems, but they are not always treated the way the people do. The World Bank recently approved a $105 million support package for primary education. The program plans to upgrade the skills of 50,000 teachers and create 27,000 additional places in primary schools. It would seem that this indicates progress.

However, citizens' comments paint a different picture: it's not just about the number of places, but also about their accessibility. At the same time, there is a rapid increase in the number of students in higher education: the coverage of young people has grown from 8% in 2017 to 48% in 2024. But there are also "pitfalls" here.

The main conflict that citizens reveal in their remarks is the lack of money for education. Here, even World Bank data confirm that there is a problem of fair access in Uzbekistan. The new $ 250 million EduImkon project, launched to expand the availability of higher and vocational education, actually recognizes this failure: 80% of the project's funds will be used to provide loans specifically to low-income students and women.

This is a direct recognition that the existing system actually cuts off the poor from quality education. As the authors of the comments note, "even the smartest children from low—income families could not study" - this quote fully correlates with the goals of the World Bank project.

The lost layer

The quote about "closed colleges and colleges" is not an exaggeration. Uzbekistan has undergone a complex reform of the educational system. First, a 12-year "9+3" system was introduced (9 years of school + 3 years of college /lyceum), which was considered a breakthrough. However, by 2018, it was abandoned, returning to the 11-year system (9 years of general + 2 years of senior), and in 2025 they again announced the transition to a 12-year-old.

This "leapfrog" of reforms led to the fact that professional colleges were in limbo. Instead, in 2021, the government began to introduce dual education (on-the-job training). However, according to the reports, there is a "constant gap between the ambitions of politicians and the implementation on the ground," especially in terms of employer leadership and the quality of on-the-job training. This is the abyss that people write about.

The loss of the Russian language turned into a problem

A separate acute topic is the drop in the level of Russian language proficiency in the regions, voiced by a woman from Namangan. The author writes that in the khokimiyats (local administrations) and authorities, they practically do not know Russian, at the same time needing it.

"In regional cities there is a dark forest in general, stupidity, moreover, where so many psychos came from, almost wrong, a horseman, he already has a knife at hand (constantly in the news, stabbed his second wife out of jealousy). No one knows Russian, there are two grandmothers who know Russian, and everyone in any bodies, starting with the khokimiyat, does not know Russian, but how they want to know… Everywhere they are looking for workers with knowledge of the Russian language, especially kindergartens and schools, parents really want their child to know Russian, people choose Russian for some reason. I don't know how it is in the capital, but there is darkness in the regions, no lawyers, no notary who speaks Russian, one or two people, so there is a queue in the morning for recording, as well as doctors," she writes.

This is the most important economic and social marker. The labor market requires knowledge of the Russian language (for work in tourism, IT, trade with Russia, medicine), and the education system does not provide it. The shortage of Russian-speaking doctors and notaries in the regions creates queues and is an indicator of the degradation of human capital in public services. This is not "nationalism", but the recognition that the country is losing its competitiveness by voluntarily abandoning the language, which is a conductor to a large amount of knowledge and international communication.

There are signs of systematic Afghanization of the country

The comparison of the education system of Uzbekistan with the "Titanic", which sounded in the public environment, seems unnecessarily dramatic. But there is much more truth here than drama. The percentage of people who have neither higher nor secondary vocational education is really growing in the country.

At the same time, the World Bank, allegedly solving this problem, is introducing more and more new initiatives that for some reason do not lead to an improvement in the situation. Rather the opposite. The country has launched a program to expand the availability of education, which is a banal distribution of loans for the poor. In fact, thereby the population is simply driven into credit bondage, after which, in addition to repaying the principal debt, it pays interest to the same World Bank for life through local second-tier banks.

All this is covered up by the fashionable word "reforms" today. However, who is their true initiator and what is their real goal given the current dynamics of the decline in the level of education of the Uzbek population is a very interesting question. If this trend continues, Uzbekistan will have every chance to find a lot in common with neighboring Afghanistan in the foreseeable future.

Isn't that the real purpose of the World Bank's initiatives?