On September 10, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on the issues of training qualified personnel in information technologies and systematic work with gifted youth.

The digital economy is defined as one of the foundations of the development of Uzbekistan. The implementation of the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 Strategy has been launched for this purpose. Within its framework, 89 projects have been implemented in the regions and more than 200 projects in the industries.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of IT Park residents has increased by 35 percent, they have created more than 6 thousand new jobs. The export of software products in the first eight months of this year amounted to $26 million. In the next 3 years, it is planned to implement another 300 projects in various sectors of the economy.

One Million Programmers Project is being implemented in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates to provide these projects and the IT sector as a whole with highly qualified specialists. To date, 567 thousand boys and girls have received free education. It is noteworthy that 79 percent of them are schoolchildren.

At the beginning of the event, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, who participated in the meeting via videoconference, shared his views on the significance of this project.

Issues of improving the conditions and expanding the coverage of education in information technology were discussed at the meeting.

It was noted that no one from 2 thousand schools participated in the One Million Programmers Project.

The Head of the state stressed the importance of bringing the project to every school, if necessary – additional equipment of schools with computers, wide involvement of children in the project.

“No school should be left out of One Million Programmers Project”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

It was also indicated that such courses will be organized based on youth centers and Ishga Marhamat mono-centers at places.

Today, there are 100 schools specializing in information technologies in the country. In the next two years, it is planned to increase their number to 205 and train more than 30 thousand students.

In this regard, responsible persons were instructed to prepare teachers for these schools, equipment and training programs in advance.

Another innovation is that from October 1 this year, 14 IT technical schools will be established in all regions. About 8 thousand young people will be trained in such areas as software engineering, information security and telecommunications.

Issues of strengthening the material-technical base of technical schools were also discussed at the meeting.

Training centers play an important role in personnel training. In particular, Aloqabank plans to create a venture fund with an authorized capital of 80 billion UZS and a Center for the development of IT knowledge. Over the next five years, the center will professionally train 100 thousand young people in software development, mobile applications and network administration.

In addition, there are currently 151 digital technology training centers, where more than 27 thousand students have studied this year. The importance of expanding the activities of these centers, the creation of such educational institutions based on public-private partnership was noted.

Issues of improving the quality of the educational process in Presidential, specialized and creative schools were also considered.

Today, 576 students study in 4 Presidential schools, 1.5 thousand students study in 3 specialized and 9 creative schools.

The Head of the state stressed that national values and patriotic education should be given great importance in this process. The importance of wide familiarization of students with the history, culture and art of Uzbekistan, the organization of patriotic lessons with the participation of military personnel was noted.

The tasks were set to orient students of specialized schools to professions in information technology, to organize courses in creative schools on web design, computer graphics, visual and digital art, the creation of audiovisual works, translation, journalism and acting.

The need for professional development of teachers of these schools based on advanced international experience and standards was emphasized.

For this purpose, it is planned to create a Center for Pedagogical Skills and International Assessment in Tashkent and its branch in Andijan. The Center will attract qualified specialists from abroad, improve the skills of teachers in subjects and foreign languages, issue international certificates.

In general, a new system of introducing investment and innovative directions into the activities of Presidential Schools will be created. The Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assist in attracting educational programs, literature and equipment, qualified teachers and grants from abroad. Exchange programs for teachers and students jointly with foreign schools will also be implemented.

Reports of responsible persons were heard on the discussed issues at the meeting.