Uzbekistan: Implementing ECEC Services in Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

This chapter explores the opportunities for early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform in Uzbekistan, and the extent to which reforms can build on ‘local knowledge’. Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union and inherited a rigid Soviet style kindergarten system, which nevertheless promoted care and education, and attempted, in principle, to offer access to all children. These kindergartens fell into disrepair and disuse, but are now being revived with the help of the World Bank funds. At the same time, the Uzbek government has promoted a partly concocted patriarchal traditionalism, especially in rural areas, as a means of social control. The inherent contradictions and repression under the Soviet system continued in a different form under the current Uzbek government have led to confusion about what is local knowledge or what people might want or expect from an ECEC system.