Dushanbe, Tajikistan – U.S. Chargѐ d’Affaires Kevin Covert joined Deputy Minister of Education and Science Latofat Naziri, local education officials and stakeholders, implementing partners, students, librarians, and teachers to celebrate the shared accomplishments of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Quality Reading Project partnership as it closes after four years.

Through USAID, the U.S. government partnered with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Republican Teacher Training Institute, the Republican Methodological Center, the Academy of Education, and the National Testing Center to improve reading instruction in Tajik and Russian language primary grade classes, reaching over 435,000 primary grade students.

The project trained 17,608 primary grade teachers in child-centered reading and literacy methods in 1,807 Tajik and Russian primary grade schools, donated 232,790 primary grade books to school libraries, and developed mentoring and coaching systems for primary grade schools. The USAID Quality Reading Project also organized over 4,000 out-of-school activities, including reading camps, mobile puppet theater productions, and together with the Ministry of Education and Science, UNICEF, and Open Society International, subtitled an animated children’s educational television series, the first of its kind in the country.

The U.S. Chargѐ d’Affaires thanked the Ministry of Education, regional and district education departments and Tajikistan’s hardworking teachers, explaining that “having teachers who are engaging and access to mother tongue reading materials and out-of-school reading activities all encourage a culture of reading and help give children a strong foundation for lifelong learning.”

The USAID Quality Reading Project is one of the many assistance projects made possible by the American people through USAID. Since 1992, the U.S government has provided over $1.8 billion in assistance that supports Tajikistan’s security, democratic institutions, social sector, and economic growth.