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FEATURES OF THE UZBEK MODEL OF LIFELONG EDUCATION
N. G. Karimov
The main idea of the reforms being carried out in the education sphere is ensuring continuity and succession between the main levels of education.
In accordance with the National program for staff training, the new model of education includes the following levels of education: pre-school -general secondary - secondary specialized professional - higher education (bachelor’s and master’s degrees) - post-university education (the institutional structure of "trainee researcher” and "senior scientific researcher”), skills upgrade and retraining of staff. Out-of-school education is presented separately.
This model of education allows a person not only to maintain the necessary level of professional knowledge and competencies, but to raise their professional level throughout the course of their life. The model creates an effective mechanism of an education system in which the main components include respect for the person, necessary conditions for developing their abilities, creative potential and spiritual development. The following principles are contained in the model of lifelong education: priority, democratization, humanization, humanitarization, national focus, inseparableness of education and upbringing, and the discovery of gifted and talented young people. The subjects of activity of this model are: the personality, the state, society, lifelong education, science and production.
A distinguishing feature of the National program for training staff is the introduction into the system of lifelong education of both independent and compulsory stages of education: nine-year general secondary and three-year secondary specialized and professional education, which provides continuity in the transition from general educational to professional study programs. In higher education, there is a full transition to a two-level system: the bachelor’s program and the master’s program.
Since 1998, a fundamentally new type of education has begun to form in the republic - secondary specialized and professional education, which is realized at two types of educational institutions: at academic lyceums and professional colleges. Professional colleges differ radically from former vocational colleges by their implementation and content of education. Graduates of both types of educational institutions have the opportunity of continuing study at university.
Taking into account the results of realization of the National program for training staff, and the prospects of socio-economic development of the
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republic, the following priority areas have been established for the development of secondary specialized and professional education, and higher professional education in the medium-term perspective:
first priority - development of the system for nurturing morality, spirituality, patriotism and culture of children and young students on the basis of the national idea;
second priority - improving the contents and organization of the educational process, ensuring the continuity and succession of professional educational programs and the stipulated quality of education;
third priority - development of a system of training, retraining and skills upgrade of pedagogical, engineering-pedagogical and management staff;
fourth priority - improving the economy and management of the education system.
Higher education in Uzbekistan, as it becomes integrated into the international educational space, undoubtedly feels the influence of the development of international higher education, which manifests itself in the following ways:
firstly, today the most serious world problems are closely linked with national and regional problems. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the role of professional education and each educational establishment in the dynamics of their development at national and global levels;
secondly, integration processes in education must preserve national features, traditions and spiritual values;
thirdly, higher education must be capable of opposing external threats and risks which may be faced by the younger generation;
fourthly, higher education must become an effective social institution of inter-governmental, inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue, and dialogue between different cultures in the name of progress and the well-being of the nation and civilization as a whole;
fifthly, constant improvement of the study process and providing quality of education in accordance with the requirements of the state educational standard.
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