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The government of Uzbekistan has announced the reintroduction of fees for textbooks in public schools, incorporating this measure into the 2025 budget proposal. According to the plan, starting from the 2025/2026 academic year, parents will once again be required to pay for the rental of textbooks and workbooks for students in grades 2–11.
As stated in the document, this fee is being introduced to actively involve parents in providing educational materials, encouraging them to take greater responsibility in preserving and maintaining the books. Currently, the cost of a complete set of textbooks and workbooks averages between 450,000 and 500,000 soums for the state, with approximately 100,000–150,000 soums allocated to workbooks. It is expected that parents will pay around 80,000 soums per set—only 16–18% of the actual cost.
The collected funds, estimated to total 376.6 billion soums annually, will be used to partially cover the costs of printing and distributing workbooks among students. Authorities emphasize that moving from full free textbook rental to partial funding will increase parents’ responsibility. Full funding of educational materials by the state budget led many parents and students to develop a careless attitude toward preserving textbooks, which affected their condition and lifespan. Now, the government believes that the rental fee will serve as a motivation for more careful use of educational materials.
The textbook rental fee system is not new to Uzbekistan—it was first introduced in the early 2000s under an Asian Development Bank project. However, in 2022, when the rental fee significantly increased, the public reacted strongly, demanding the removal of the fee. The situation escalated to the point that the president personally ordered urgent measures to organize free rentals, which was promptly implemented.
This new initiative may spark another wave of debate and dissatisfaction, especially as society has become accustomed to the free provision of textbooks.
The article may contain inaccuracies as it is translated by AI. For more details, please refer to the Russian version of the article. If you notice any inaccuracies, you can send corrections via the Telegram bot: Uzvaibik_bot.
