Uzbekistan recognized the contribution of UNODC to the development of public education

On 7 December 2020, Ms. Ashita Mittal, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) to Central Asia, was awarded with the medal "Xalq ta’limi fidoyisi" (For Devotion to Public Education) at the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 

During the term of implementation of UNODC Programme for Central Asia 2015-2021, UNODC and the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan have developed successful and fruitful cooperation within several initiatives aimed at preventing crime and drug use among young people through sports, teaching family skills, improving their mental well-being and increasing their resilience to various negative factors in life, promoting healthy lifestyles, fostering legal literacy and broadening the legal consciousness, as well as nurturing respect for the rule of law.

The following programmes are worth mentioning as examples of the most successful joint initiatives:

✅ 2013-2015, the Family and School Together program which trained 800 trainers covered 391 schools and 5,700 families. This project is still being implemented in general education schools.

✅ 2016-2018, the Strong Family program, prepared 2017 facilitators who conducted trainings in 4,328 schools across the country, reaching 43,310 students and their parents who needed psychological help. School psychologists still use the modules of this program.

✅ Since 2018, the Education for Justice initiative (Global Program for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, E4J). Under this programme, consisting of three cycles (for students of the primary, secondary and high school), a number of measures were carried out aimed at improving the culture of the rule of law among students through trainings for trainers, interactive games "Honesty" aimed at combating corruption, demonstration of social videos and books that tell about the dangers that can be found on the Internet and much more. Also, nine episodes of the animated series "the Zorbs", created within the framework of the Doha Declaration Global Programme to increase the culture of the rule of law, were translated into Uzbek, and a guidebook was developed for teachers. This animated series and the guidebook were included in the textbooks on the newly introduced subject "Civic education", which will reach 600,000 thousand schoolchildren in grade 4 annually.

✅ From 2019 to the present day, under the “United family” program, 70 trainers were prepared who works to develop life skills of positive psychology and stress management. This program was included in the national concept "United family – a happy school" in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

✅ From 2019 to the present day, the UNODC Global Initiative on sports life skills "Hayotga Qo’shil" (Join Life) covered 27 schools in the Ferghana Valley (Andijan, Namangan, Ferghana) and 13 schools in Tashkent, and also 45 schools were equipped with 22 types of sports equipment. 

✅ The success of the "Hayotga Qo’shil" (Line Up Live Up) program allowed to expand the work on crime prevention among schoolchildren through sports and initiate the filming of social video clips. In this regard, a series of 4 videos was filmed, the heroes of which are real people - famous and novice athletes and ordinary schoolchildren, who were able to overcome life difficulties and choose positive goals for the future. One of the videos telling a Paralympic athlete's story was also proposed by the Ministry as a multimedia application for the “Civic Education” textbook.

During the awarding ceremony, H.E. Mr. Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan highlighted that the format of cooperation with the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia is one of the most successful, and also noted a number of areas in which the Ministry welcomes additional technical assistance: measures to improve the mental health of students, increasing interest and motivation in the teaching profession, as well as developing Internet literacy and information security skills.

In her turn, Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Public Education for their trust and long-term cooperation in the interests of the younger generation, and also expressed hope for expanding and strengthening partnerships within the framework of the new UNODC Programme for 2021-2025 which is currently under development.

At the end of the ceremony, the parties expressed mutual gratitude for the cooperation, and also noted possible areas for expanding cooperation in the best interests of students and their family well-being, their mental well-being, as well as educating the growing generation of the country in the spirit of a healthy lifestyle and respect for the rule of law.

 

Эта статья на русском.

 

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For more information, please contact Vasilina Brazhko (Mrs.)

UNODC Communication and PR Specialist (Bishkek)

WhatsApp: +996775987817

E-mail: vasilina.brazhko[at]un.org

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or Shakhnoza Zafari

Communication and External Relations Officer (Tashkent)

Mobile: +998935547895

E-mail: shakhnoza.zafari[at]un.org