Russia is expected to provide six billion rubles within the next few years for construction of five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan.

Speaking at a roundtable “State and Prospects of Social and Humanitarian Cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan” in Moscow, the first deputy chairperson of the Federation Council (Russia’s upper house of parliament) Committee on Science, Education and Culture, Mrs. Liliya Gumerova, noted that those schools will be provided with all necessary equipment and the state-of-the-art technologies.

According to her, 1.2 billion rubles will be provided for construction and equipping of each of those five schools.  Each of these schools will accommodate 1,200 pupils.   

The event took place on the sidelines of the ongoing Tajik-Russian Inter-Parliamentary Forum entitled.

Meanwhile President of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Farhod Rahimi, proposed to open Tajik schools in the Russian Federation.     

Recall, Russia at the start of this academic year sent 30 teachers to secondary schools in Tajikistan.  Teachers from the Russian regions of Kostroma, Kemerovo, Bashkortostan, Daghestan, and Tatarstan have arrived in Tajikistan to teach subjects such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, Russian, and others at secondary schools where teaching is conducted in Russian.

The education sector in Tajikistan has been in decline after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Many Tajik nationals reportedly described the effort to bring over Russian teachers as a much-needed remedy.

On April 5 this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting in Moscow with his Tajik counterpart, Sirojiddin Muhriddin, that there are plans to build another five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan, but he provided no timeframe.