October 20, 2020, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed a Decree ‘On measures to further develop the Uzbek language and improve the language policy in the country’.

The key objective of the Decree is to drastically increase the authority of the Uzbek language in the social life of our people and at the international level, educate the younger generation in the spirit of patriotism, devotion to national traditions and values, ensure the full implementation of the state language in the country, create conditions for the preservation and development of the languages ​​of nations and ethnic groups living in Uzbekistan, create enabling environment for learning the Uzbek language as the state language, set strategic goals, priority areas and tasks, promising stages in the development of the Uzbek language and language policy.

The Decree:

Approved the Concept of Uzbek Language Development and Improvement of the Language Policy 2020-2030.

The Concept envisions:

Ensuring a full and correct use of advantages of the state language in all areas of social and political life;

Further improvement of the state language teaching system in educational organizations, raising its authority as the language of science;

Preservation of the purity of the state language, its enrichment, improvement of culture of speech of the population;

Ensuring active integration of the state language with modern information technologies and communications;

Increasing the role and authority of the state language at the international level, developing international cooperation in this direction;

Creation of broad and equal opportunities for the development of languages ​​of all nationalities and ethnic groups living on the territory of our country, as well as an enabling environment for them to learn the state language.

The Decree has also approved as follows:

The Program of implementation of the Concept of Uzbek Language Development and Improvement of Language Policy 2020–2030 in 2020–2022;

Major areas of development of the Uzbek language, and improvement of the language policy in 2020–2030.

 Key areas envision:

Bringing the coverage with Uzbek-speaking groups in the public preschool education system to 72 percent by 2025, and to 80 percent by 2030, by expanding territories of existing preschool education organizations, and by building new institutions;

Increasing the total number of hours of Uzbek Language in the basic curricula of general schools, complied for academic year, from 84 hours to 110 hours per week by 2030;

Bringing the number of Uzbek Language Departments in higher education institutions to 120 by 2025, and to 140 by 2030;

A gradual increase in the publication of volumes of the National Encyclopedia of Uzbekistan in the Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin script;

In 2020, creation of 15 linguistic, industry-specific terminological and explanatory dictionaries that enrich the vocabulary of the Uzbek language;

Introduction of a training system for newscasters and presenters of leading TV and radio channels in retraining courses on improvement of the culture of speech in the Uzbek literary language, bringing their coverage to 100 percent by 2030;

Development of electronic samples of industry documents on office work in the state language by 2025, as well as 14 online software manuals, bringing their number to 25 by 2030;

Creation of applications for software products and electronic dictionaries in the Uzbek language;

Creation of programs of teaching Uzbek as a foreign language;

Increasing the number of Uzbek language centers in foreign higher education institutions from the current 17 to 60 by 2030;

Bringing the number of ‘Uzbek Language Friends’ clubs to 30 by 2025, and to 40 by 2030;

Supplies of scientific, educational, methodological literature and fiction to Uzbek language courses in foreign higher education institutions, expansion of scientific research on teaching the Uzbek language.

From April 1, 2021, based on the national test system for Uzbek language and literature, it is planned to conduct state language examinations among candidates for managerial  staff, and introduce state language certificates for persons appointed to responsible positions.

Besides:

The Training Center for Secretarial Work in the State Language and Advanced Training at Alisher Navoi Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature will offer regular short-term courses (1-2 months) on Uzbek literary language standards and secretarial work in the state language.

The Uzbek Language Development Foundation at the Cabinet of Ministers will finance publishing of the following dictionaries:

An updated new edition of the multivolume Explanatory Dictionary of the Uzbek Language (in the Uzbek alphabet based on the Cyrillic and Latin script);

Spelling Dictionary of the Uzbek Language;

Dictionary of Synonyms of the Uzbek Language;

Big Explanatory Dictionary of Synonyms of the Uzbek Language;

Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary of the Uzbek Language;

Dictionary of Homonyms of the Uzbek Language.

The Decree sets the following tasks:

To create ‘Computer Linguistics’ and ‘Applied Philology’ disciplines for philological departments of higher education institutions;

Establish Uzbek Language Centers in foreign higher education institutions;

Establish national Uzbek language corps in electronic form, including all scientific, theoretical and practical information about the Uzbek language;

Entrust the National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan, involving stakeholders, with organizing regular broadcasting of the cycle of programs "Respect for the Language", "Let’s talk the native language", "Art of acting", "Language is the nation’s mirror", “Book as a source of knowledge”, “Educated youth is a creator of the future” on major TV channels, starting from January 1, 2021.

Information Service
Development Strategy Center