School textbooks will be provided free of charge only this year - The Ministry of Public Education.

This year alone, textbooks will be provided free of charge to students at State general educational institutions in Uzbekistan.  The government will decide whether this order will continue in the future.  It was announced today 6 September, at a press conference with the participation of officials of the Ministry of National Education.

According to Deputy Minister of Public Education Temur Komilov, this year the rent will be paid from the state budget.

“There is a law on the state budget.  If you see the law, the budget of the Book Fund was approved.  This year, books worth 1.1 trillion soms should be published.  Of these, 605 billion soms will be allocated from the state budget. The rest is from the fund.  According to the legislation, the money in the Fund is formed from this rent.  This year 500 billion should be covered from the rental income”, - Komilov says.

The Deputy Minister said that this year, on the initiative of the president, about 500 billion soms will be allocated from the state budget to help the population.  This benefit is granted only for the current academic year.

First Deputy Minister of Public Education Usman Sharifkhodjaev added that whether this order will continue in the future, will be examined by a working group and decided by the government.

It should be recalled that on 2 September, the cost of renting school textbooks for the school year 2022-2023 was announced.  According to this, the cost of renting textbooks for classes in the Uzbek language had increased by 108 percent.  The Ministry of Public Education reacted to this issue, which caused dissatisfaction among parents and the public, explaining the rise in the cost of printing new textbooks, was related to, in particular, the price of paper on the world market and the transportation of paper to Uzbekistan.  This resulted in a sharp increase in costs.

After complaints about the delivery of textbooks reached the president, the Head of State instructed the provision of textbooks free of charge.  The Head of State also instructed that a full critical evaluation of the quality of school textbooks should be conducted.