Tajikistan Education Profile 2012

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Tajikistan’s public expenditure on education was 3.4% of GDP in 2006. The country benefits from offers of free places at Russian universities and other foreign educational establishments. The Russian government also subsidizes the Tajik-Slavonic University in Dushanbe, and the Aga-Khan Foundation established a university in Khorog aimed mainly at the Ismaili community.

Muslim foundations offer free places to study abroad, but the government is becoming increasingly wary of radical religious influences. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP for 2000 – 2005 is not listed in the 2007/2008 Human Development Report. The Tajikistan Development Gateway reports that related 2005 expenditures constituted $2.7 million, or 0.1% of GDP. The country is described as “scientifically lagging.” Both the educational and R&D sectors suffer from a severe lack of qualified teachers due to high levels of emigration by the professional cadre as well as to the aging of those who have remained in the country.