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Politics

Uzbekistan folds two ministries into one for education and science

A decree of 3 October merges the Ministry of Preschool and School Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation into a Ministry of Education and Science, and gives the Cabinet a week to organise it. That evening economic adviser Obid Khakimov became deputy head of the presidential administration for education reform, and on Sunday businessman Zafar Khashimov was named to lead a working group on it.

By CAW Staff5 October 2026
Two old wooden doors stand open under a single new blue frame in a sunlit corridor.

The decree, published on the president’s site on 3 October without a number, opens on the purpose: a system of continuous education, upbringing and science built on modern requirements, and a new level of human capital. Its operative sentence is one line: create a Ministry of Education and Science on the basis of the two existing ministries. Oversight of execution is assigned to Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov.

Two clocks run from it. The Cabinet of Ministers has a week to submit the draft resolution that organises the ministry, which by CAW’s count is 10 October. The new ministry, with the interested ministries, has two months to submit proposals for changes to legislation.

Oversight of execution is assigned to Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov.

The ministry will run kindergartens, schools, colleges and universities, set the requirements for educational activity and carry out accreditation and licensing, Spot reported on Sunday. The decree names no minister.

Obid Khakimov’s move came the same evening. Press secretary Sherzod Asadov announced that the president had relieved him as adviser on economic policy, a post he held from October 2025, and appointed him deputy head of the presidential administration for education reform, concurrently rector of New Uzbekistan University. Before the advisory post he headed the Centre for Economic Research and Reforms.

His successor as economic adviser is Kamoliddin Mardonov, until now first deputy head of the administration’s department of legal expertise and comprehensive analysis.

On Sunday Spot reported a third decision: Zafar Khashimov, the founder of Anglesey Food, will lead a working group on education reform under the presidential administration, unpaid. The group’s brief, as reported, is new approaches to quality, less state intervention, more autonomy for universities and room for the private sector.

The restructuring follows the president’s 1 October programme of 100 English-language STEM schools and 300 foreign university campuses. Who will be minister, and whether the two existing ministers keep a post, is for the Cabinet’s resolution to say by 10 October.

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