D Tashmukhamedova
Adult learning and education (ALE) is an important part of life-long education, and this task is currently assigned a key role in addressing the challenges faced by modern society. Thanks to ALE, adults expand their knowledge, capabilities, skills, and abilities throughout their life, and acquire popular professions. Sustainable development of the state and its competitiveness depend on the continuous professional education and lifelong skills and expertize improvement of the population, especially adults.
Until recently, this issue has received insufficient attention in Uzbekistan. The peculiarity of "adult education" here was that being present in real life, it was not institutionalized, did not have the status of a generally recognized sector of the education system. Recently, certain steps have been taken to improve the situation in this area.
The state program for 2020 decrees the establishment of Ishga Marhamat monocenters and vocational training centers throughout the country. They will deliver entrepreneurship courses, courses for single women, mothers with many children, young people, and the unemployed, that will train them in various trades. The program also plans to institute digital technology centers, youth and IT parks within the framework of The Five Presidential Initiatives.
On August 11, 2020, the President signed a Decree "on additional measures aimed at attracting poor and unemployed citizens to entrepreneurship, intensification of labor activity and vocational training, and labor supply for the unemployed". On September 23, 2020, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted a new version of the Law "on education”, which specifies "adult education and training" among the forms of education. For the first time, the study Adult Education in Uzbekistan: Current State and Development Prospects conducted in 2019 has addressed the issue.
The article analyzes educational policies of Uzbekistan and other countries, and formulates further steps for improvement.
