[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1133, 206], "category": "Text", "text": "quality of learning outcomes, conducting surveys or independent assessments, as well as provision of specific expertise."}, {"bbox": [85, 219, 458, 243], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.3 Additional Areas of Assessment"}, {"bbox": [85, 259, 286, 287], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### 2.3.1 Public Policy"}, {"bbox": [96, 314, 1135, 528], "category": "Text", "text": "In Tajikistan, the main public policy document for the sector of education is the NSED, developed with EU support. The goal of the education reforms is formulated in the Strategy as 'creation of an educational system that should be of high quality and accessible to all throughout life, providing the country's economy with competent workers, appropriate infrastructure and based on modern and innovative technologies'. It is expected, that in the result of the reforms, the Tajik education system will become 'economically sustainable and meet the standards of the world's leading educational systems and international quality assessment systems', and 'ensure preservation and development of the cultural identity, as well as maintaining national identity and cultural diversity' which will 'protect the interests and ensure the prestige of the country'."}, {"bbox": [96, 538, 1135, 805], "category": "Text", "text": "The Strategy sets 3 long-term objectives and corresponding medium-term objectives: 1) Enhanced equity and participation in education at all levels: improved attractiveness and access to VET; expanded continuous education system; inclusiveness and reduced dropout rates; safe and favourable learning conditions; 2) Improved quality and relevance of education: strengthened capacity of the education sector personnel, effective system of teachers training and retraining, attractiveness of the teacher's profession; qualifications framework, modernisation of standards and curricula and institutional mechanisms for the education quality assessment; strengthened interaction of education with the private sector and development partners; 3) Strengthened and effective governance in education: strengthened coordination of reforms; data collection for informed decision-making; improved public finance management; effective monitoring and evaluation system in education. Through NSED, the country commits also to reach the SDG 4 (Quality education for all) targets for Tajikistan."}, {"bbox": [96, 816, 1135, 1107], "category": "Text", "text": "For the area of TVET, the key priority reform measures are identified with the main purpose to address the challenge of 'ensuring a sufficient number of adequately educated/trained workers to meet the needs of the labour market both domestically and abroad'. Those measures inter alia foresee construction and reconstruction of VET institutions' buildings; operationalising VET graduates' tracer studies; introducing National Qualification Framework (NQF) and updating the VET curricula according to NQF and occupational standards; systematic professional development of VET teachers; revising the VET state funding mechanism and attracting additional resources to VET. In addition, as measures to VET governance, it is supposed to ensure closer alignment between the policy priorities and public spending and strengthen the multi-channel financing of institutions; stimulate investments in the education; improve the Education Management Information System (EMIS); integrate digital technologies in the education sector management system; introduce new forms of public-private partnership in education."}, {"bbox": [96, 1120, 1135, 1520], "category": "Text", "text": "The Strategy is equipped with a costed and annualised Action Plan (AP) for the 3-year period of 2021-2023, also developed with EU support. The cost of the 2021-2023 actions related to VET (combined PVET and SVET), is assessed equal to TJS 298.7 million or EUR 20.7 million⁹. The share of the cost to be covered from grants is 75.5% (TJS 225.6 million or EUR 15.7 million). The remaining 24.5% (TJS 73.1 million or EUR 5.07 million) will be funded from the state budget. It is to mention that the cost of the AP 2021-2023 seems significantly underestimated compared with the real financial needs. Thus, e.g., for 'introduction of new type institutions' and 'refurbishment and modernisation of the existing VET institutions' only EUR ~5.7 million and EUR ~13.0 million, respectively, is foreseen; which would cover only a very limited number of institutions (in the AP, no quantitative indicators for the activities are defined). In addition, considering the limited scope of the activities included in the AP 2021-2023 against the NSED objectives, it can be fairly expected that the next AP (e.g., for 2024-2026, which is the period to be largely covered by the proposed EU Budget Support programme) may include substantially more activities, with much higher costs. At the same time, within the NSED AP area \"Governance and Financing\", around TJS 40 million (EUR ~2.8 million) is foreseen particularly for introducing EMIS (for the entire education system) and the accompanying activities. Besides, the costs of PFM reforms in the education sector, which are proposed to be a component of the expected Budget Support Programme, are not directly considered in the NSED AP."}, {"bbox": [85, 1622, 480, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ The cost of the further actions is not calculated yet."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1680, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 36"}]