European Trade Union Committee for Education

Research and monitoring had shown that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union retraining of trade union leaders had not been conducted and it was necessary to raise their awareness of the current national legislation. The training of trade union activists is a key tool to improve the efficiency of trade union work. With a view to studying the positive experiences of foreign colleagues, TUESRT decided to strengthen the cooperation with international partners.

In Berlin in 2007, World Congress decided to create the Development Cooperation Initiative in Central Asia. With a view to facilitate and further support the EI member organisations in the Central Asian region, the EI Executive Board decided on 22 October 2014, that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are transferred from the EI Asia-Pacific Region to the European Region - ETUCE. With the transfer of the Central Asian countries to the European Region, ETUCE takes on the coordination of the Central Asia Consortium Project from the EI Asia Pacific Region of Education International which had been in charge of implementing the project since its launch in 2007 in close cooperation with the consortium partners. The consortium partners are the Swedish teacher union Lärarförbundet, the Union of Education Norway (UEN) and the Australian Education Union (AEU).

In the framework of the project, the workshops are held amongst others on raising awareness among trade union leaders, the concepts and principles of the leadership under the market economy conditions and the economic and social situation in the educational sector.  Nowadays the trade union is more aware of the need to have an independent, democratic and sustainable organisation and young teachers are enthusiastic of becoming members of the organisation in Tajikistan. Odinaev Ramazon, the President of the trade union, says: "The active trade union leaders' engagement in union activity is one of the positive outcomes of this project. Today our leaders know their rights and responsibilities and how to conduct seminars and effective negotiations with authorities. They started to raise questions more often at local and national levels and have become more confident in themselves and in their abilities. The committee leaders at community and regional levels have begun promptly informing TUESRT on the state of affairs on the ground. Above all, they have realised that trade unions of today are no longer Soviet."

The carrying out of these training seminars has another positive effect. These seminars get together trade unions leaders and provide them with the opportunity to learn about other trade unions' activities, exchange experiences, debate about their achievements and challenges in an informal setting and suggest subjects for the upcoming workshops.

"Wish that such workshops will be conducted more often so that leaders of trade union committees enhance their knowledge and become more active"

"The seminar was interesting and useful, especially for those new leaders of the committees. Many important issues that are seen in schools and kindergartens were discussed"

"I learned a lot from this seminar, like how to be a good leader. I would like to express my gratitude and wish all the best to the organisers of this workshop"

Considering the outcomes of the project and the fruit that our Tajik member organisation bears from this complex project, one of the gains achieved by TUESRT is the signed agreement with the Ministry of Education for the period 2012-2017, in which special attention is paid to the improvement of teachers' salaries and of other education staff. Within the implementation of this agreement the salaries are increasing annually.

"The President of the Republic of Tajikistan signed the Decree on the increase of teachers' salaries by 30 % as from 1 September 2015. It should be noted that salaries are paid regularly in the education sector. However, due to the persistently high inflation rate, teachers' salaries remain low, in spite of the yearly increase. The maximum teacher's salary is about $ 100," says the Deputy President of the trade union, Kurbonov Muhammad.

The objective of the seminars is to provide the participants with the opportunity to discuss the role of teacher' unions in the Tajik market economy, to prepare conducting analysis of the situation in Tajikistan, and discuss challenges and problems that teachers face.