Uzbekistan is preparing to switch to a 12-year school system. It will include a preparatory class for six-year-olds.

The preparatory stage for children aged 6 will become part of the school system, which will bring education closer to international standards and facilitate admission abroad, said Sardor Rajabov, Deputy Minister of Preschool and School Education, Ferghana writes.

According to him, the reform will be implemented in stages by including preparatory groups for six-year-olds in the school system. Today, they cover almost all children of this age. The purpose of the innovation is to bring the national model in line with international standards and improve the quality of graduate training.

Rajabov noted that the current 11-year system creates barriers to admission to foreign universities. Graduates have to take one-year foundation courses, which leads to a loss of time. The introduction of 12 years of study will allow applicants to directly enroll in bachelor's degree programs in many countries.

According to the newspaper, the relevant presidential decree has already been prepared. The explanatory note states that the 11-year-old model does not meet international standards: about 15,000 graduates are forced to take additional courses every year. A comparative analysis showed that in 85% of the countries that took the leading positions in the PISA 2022 study, schooling lasts 12 years.

The new structure will include: 1 year of preparatory stage, 4 years of primary school, 5 years of basic general secondary education (grades 5-9), 2 years of general secondary education (in schools, lyceums, military schools or technical schools).

For this purpose, new classrooms will be created in more than 3.6 thousand schools and over 1 thousand preschool institutions. The curricula of universities that train teachers will also be redesigned.

Until 2009, there was an 11-year school in the country. Then the 12-year education model (9+3) was introduced, but in 2018 it was abandoned, returning to the previous format due to low efficiency.

Tajikistan also plans to switch to 12-year general secondary education from the 2029-2030 academic year as part of the National Education Development Strategy until 2030.

According to the plan of the authorities, the admission of children to the first grade will begin at the age of 6, and basic education will become compulsory until the 10th grade. The full course of secondary education will be 12 years old.

Discussions about switching to 12-year education have been going on in Tajikistan for many years, and earlier the Ministry of Education and Science promised to switch to this system in the coming years, but it was unclear when this change in the education system would be implemented.

In July of this year, the Ministry of Education discussed these issues and now plans to switch to a 12-year education system in the 2029-2030 academic year.