On October 31, a meeting of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis was held. The report of the Cabinet of Ministers on the progress of the State Program implementation in the Q3 of 2019 was presented at the meeting.

During the event, MP Rasul Kusherbayev said that the stipend is set at 400,000 soums, it is not based on the grade obtained, which is causing a huge public outcry. Well-educated students should be encouraged. In fact, the new order turns out to be opposite. He asked the government to reconsider the issue, taking into account its negative impact on the quality of education.

According to Inomjon Majidov, Minister of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, this issue is on the agenda. The portal for discussing draft normative-legal acts has received numerous proposals on the draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers “On the order and amount of stipends for students of higher educational institutions”, which was discussed from 23 September to 6 October of this year. One of the most requested proposals was the differentiation, that is, stipulating the amount of stipends based on the results of students’ academic achievements.

“Due to the fact that there are a lot of proposals, the draft is being completed based on public comments. The regulation on this matter will be adopted soon. It provides for stipends based on the results of students’ academic achievements. Currently, the differentiated system still exists. Students can get higher stipends based on their grades,” Inomjon Majidov said. 

During intense debates, Shukhrat Sirojiddinov, the rector of the Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature named after Alisher Navoi reacted to the issue and said that the differentiated stipend motivated students to study just for the sake of a grade, not for the knowledge, which, in turn, promoted corruption.