Tajikistan is one of six countries piloting GPE’s new operating model – the GPE 2025 strategic framework – which helps partner countries align all elements of their education system behind a priority reform that leads to transformative change. It is an ambitious goal set in the context of the unparalleled challenges facing education today.

We recognize that “business as usual” is not enough to ensure that no child is left behind. GPE 2025 aims to accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality through equitable, inclusive, and resilient education systems fit for the 21^st century.

GPE’s new operating model has helped Tajikistan provide a collaborative space among members of the government, donors and civil society to establish a common vision for an inclusive and transformative reform agenda that will benefit all children and youth.

Priority reform: Implementing competency-based education

Using available data and evidence, Tajikistan reviewed education sector performance, developed a deeper understanding of obstacles to reform, and identified a priority reform with the potential to catalyze system change.

Based on the country-led assessment underpinned by inclusive sector dialogue, the government and its partners agreed to prioritize implementing competency-based education to improve the quality of learning and ensure life-long benefits for all children.

Tajikistan's competency-based education requires a holistic, student-centered approach that fosters development of higher-level cognitive skills and 21^st century content knowledge, a new curriculum, new materials and a new approach to teaching.

A key element of GPE 2025 is the development of a country-level Partnership Compact, which articulates how the government intends to work together with partners on its priority reform. The compact also serves as the basis for determining GPE grant resources by partners and mobilizing additional resources.

"I would like to acknowledge the successful cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Global Partnership for Education in supporting building a strong and sustainable national education system. The Ministry seeks to use wider resources from bilateral and/or multilateral funding sources, including the state budget, development partners and the private sector, to support national education priorities nationwide. The Partnership Compact will allow pooling the efforts and resources of partners and thus increasing the ability of the government to effectively use these funds in the implementation of the National Education Development Strategy until 2030. The Compact for Tajikistan has been developed in line with national education policy priorities and the GPE Strategic Plan, which reflects key needs in education for implementing an inclusive and transformative competency-based education reform agenda in Tajikistan,” noted H.E. Mr. Saidzoda Rahim Khamro, Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The government and its partners have agreed that to achieve the reform agenda, they need to pursue the following long-term outcomes:

• Strengthened governance and sustainable funding and financing for the implementation of competency-based education and other policy priorities
• Improved quality of education through teacher professional development, an embedded National Learning Assessment system, and competency-based and enhanced learning content
• Flexible, enabling and supportive learning environments for all children, including the most marginalized.

“Congratulations to the Ministry of Education and Science and to all education partners in Tajikistan on the adoption of the partnership compact, which represents a critical milestone in accelerating progress for all Tajikistan’s girls and boys. GPE is pleased to be part of Tajikistan’s efforts to bring competency-based learning to all children and build a more resilient education system,” said Charles North, acting CEO of the Global Partnership for Education.

The context shaping the priority reform

A GPE partner country since 2005, Tajikistan has made impressive enrollment gains and significant efforts to improve access and gender parity. However, students have low learning outcomes, and there remain gaps in equitable access, especially in remote regions.

To address these challenges, Tajikistan embarked on the transition path towards student-centered competency-based education in 2015, but implementation remains one the major challenges for education transformation.

Partners agree that more time, resources, and coordinated efforts are needed to ensure that competency-based education is fully embedded within the system and benefits all learners.

The government and its partners set out to adopt a more targeted approach and strengthen coordination capacities for implementation and monitoring of the reform, including mechanisms for better use of data, learning and adaptation.

“The Compact represents an opportunity to accelerate results for achieving quality inclusive learning for all children in the Republic of Tajikistan; it also represents a milestone for leveraging additional financial resources needed to implement the national education reform on 21^st century skills and digital transformation. Moving into implementation, UNICEF is strongly committed to these transformational priorities, and we will continue supporting, in our capacity as the coordinating agency, the continuous coordination and policy dialogue established among development partners and the technical departments at the Ministry of Education and Science,” noted Osama Makkawi Khogali, Representative UNICEF in Tajikistan.

Moving forward on the pathway to system transformation

Tajikistan’s Partnership Compact is a living document and will be updated as needed. As the government and partners move forward, updates will draw on ongoing sector planning and policy processes to ensure priorities are aligned to national plans and policies. A mid-term review will assess progress in key areas of the compact.

Tajikistan’s local education group will jointly support and monitor compact implementation. To facilitate learning and adaptation, the compact includes monitoring, evaluation and learning elements for tracking progress in the reform area. This enables course correction as more is learned about what is happening in the system.

One of GPE 2025’s most salient features is that the strategy is designed to meet countries where they are. Tajikistan is demonstrating how the process can support navigating its pathway to improve the quality of learning for the country’s children and youth and ensure that no one is left behind.