DUSHANBE, June 23, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- On Friday June 20, Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov and Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan Said Muhammad Khairkhoh signed a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of Tajik-Afghan Lyceum Somoniyon in Dushanbe, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE).  

Nolsho Nouraliyev, a spokesman for a MoE, said that the memorandum had been signed within the framework of an agreement on education cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan that was signed in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 27, 2005.  

The lyceum will open its doors to students in the new school year.  “Teaching at this 12-year educational facility will be conducted mainly in Dari and Pashtu languages; the lyceum students will also study Tajik and English languages,” the spokesman said, noting that the school is being opened to improve access of children of Afghan refugees living in the country and children of Afghan nationals working in Tajikistan to education.

At first, the lyceum will rent premises but in the future, the Dushanbe mayor’s office will allot them land for construction of the school building and the ministry intends to promote solution of that issue, Nouraliyev said.