School textbooks will be free this year

In the 2022-2023 academic year, after the increase in the cost of renting textbooks caused many discussions, about 500 billion soums were paid from the state budget and the rental of textbooks was canceled.

Due to the introduction of a system for providing textbooks to students free of charge, the activities of the Republican Specialized Book Fund were also terminated by Presidential Decree No. UP-79 of May 26, 2023. All its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Preschool and School Education.

In the budget document developed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for 2025, a proposal was put forward to reintroduce the rental fee for school textbooks.

In order to increase the participation of parents in providing students with textbooks, the budget provided for the re-establishment of a system for charging rent for a set of textbooks and exercise books in grades 2-11 from the 2025-2026 academic year.

At the same time, it was expected that the fee for the set for students of grades 2−11 will amount to 80,000 soums, which will reduce the burden on the state budget by approximately 376 billion soums.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance explained this by the fact that the publication of textbooks and exercise books completely at the expense of the state budget leads to a decrease in the responsibility of parents and neglect of textbooks.

Alisher Kadyrov, the leader of the "Milliy Tiklanish" Democratic Party, a deputy of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, emphasized the need to reconsider the proposal to introduce rental fees for school textbooks.

At a meeting held on December 3 this year in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis, the draft Law on the State Budget for 2025 was approved.

During the discussion of the meeting, no specific information was given on whether the proposal to reintroduce the rental fee for school textbooks was accepted or not.

For this reason, xalqtaliminfo.uz contacted the Ministry of Preschool and School Education to clarify this issue. In response to the editorial request, the ministry official said that the proposal to re-introduce the rental fee for school textbooks was not accepted.

"The proposal to make school textbooks free of charge was not already in the draft Law on the State Budget. This proposal was only mentioned in the Budget," the ministerial official said.

For information: 9,710 respondents took part in a survey on the issue of re-introducing the rental fee for school textbooks on the Telegram channel of the Khalktaliminfo.uz website.

According to the results:

• 40 percent said that textbooks should be paid, which increases the responsibility of parents;

• 51% agreed that textbooks should be free;

• 9 percent noted that this issue is irrelevant, as they pay these payments through taxes.

This survey shows that the re-introduction of rental fees for textbooks is causing different opinions in society.