Is the Ministry unaware of the escalating bureaucracy in which region?

On February 3 of this year, we reported that a working group was created under the khokimiyat of Surkhandarya region to study the activities of general education schools in the region, and based on the document signed by the khokimiyat, teachers began to demand unnecessary documents - notes, paper journals, and diaries.

Following this, the Ministry of Preschool and School Education issued an official statement stating that the reports circulating regarding the introduction of traditional (paper) diaries and class registers lack legal basis.

However, the ministry's official statement did not specify exactly where and in what interpretation these reports were spread, nor did the situation in Surkhandarya be mentioned at all.

"Reports circulating on social media about the introduction of traditional (paper) diaries and class registers in schools do not have a legal basis. In accordance with the Decree of the Head of State No. 3931 dated September 5, 2018, and the Decree No. 5712 dated April 29, 2019, the attendance and academic performance of students of all general education schools in our country are currently monitored through the eMaktab electronic log system.

The goal is to reduce the workload on teachers and introduce modern information and communication technologies in the organization of the educational process. This process has proven itself in international practice.

Currently, the cost of a calendar-year subscription to the e-maktab.uz platform for parents is 5,000 soums, and this amount is decreasing year by year (in 2020 it was 9,200 soums). As a result of the implementation of this system, parents have the opportunity to remotely monitor the level of assimilation of lessons by their children, and transparency in student assessment is ensured. Also, a reduction in various paperwork related to the activities of teachers was achieved.

At the same time, the Ministry of Preschool and School Education has not given instructions to schools of our country to return to traditional diaries and class registers, and we emphasize that the digitalization processes being carried out in our country have become irreversible," the ministry said in a statement.

Below we will briefly analyze the official statement issued by the ministry:

Firstly, if the disseminated information did not actually have a legal basis, the ministry should have avoided making statements that mislead the public without a targeted approach, or in such cases, clearly indicated the source of the message. As is known, there is liability for disseminating false information.

Secondly, on xalqtaliminfo.uz, an article was published not about the introduction of traditional (paper) diaries, class registers, and notes without a specific address, but about the official actions initiated by the Surkhandarya regional administration, citing documents signed by the head of the administration's secretariat.

Thirdly, the ministry should have begun its initial actions not with a statement in the form of a refutation of reports about the introduction of (paper) diaries, class registers, but with an assessment of the actions of the Surkhandarya regional khokimiyat, which is trying to introduce these requirements contrary to the law.

The Ministry of Preschool and School Education in its statement did not say that appropriate measures would be taken against the actions of the khokimiyat officials and did not even mention the name of the region.

Fourthly, it has been repeatedly emphasized for several years that the requirement to introduce traditional (paper) diaries and class registers has no legal basis, and this is obvious to everyone. Also, the article published on xalqtaliminfo.uz specifically mentions the norms provided for by legislation in this regard. The Ministry simply reiterated these rules.

In this regard, we consider it necessary for the Ministry of Preschool and School Education to take the following measures:

• legal assessment of cases of excessive paperwork introduced in schools on the basis of a working group created under the khokimiyat of Surkhandarya region;

• clarify the issue of the responsibility of responsible persons for tasks adopted at the level of the regional khokimiyat and contradicting current educational legislation;

• development of specific mechanisms to prevent attempts to restore bureaucracy under the guise of "studying" schools from being repeated in other regions.

Most importantly, the Ministry should focus its main attention not on reports published by the media and public activists in order to openly cover the existing problems in the regions, but on the officials who are causing these problems.

Otherwise, the ministry's general and anonymous statements will not eliminate real problems on the ground, but, on the contrary, will only exacerbate legal uncertainty.