Employees of several state organizations in Tashkent complain that their leadership is forcing them to learn English at their own expense.

Nilufar (name changed for source’s safety), who works at the Children’s Dental Clinic #2 in Tashkent, told to “Jarayon” the following:

– During a recent meeting, the chief doctor of the clinic said to all employees that we must learn English language for dentists. However, the most outrageous thing in this order is that doctors must learn the language at their own expense, as the management of the clinic is not going to provide the employees any financial assistance for learning English. Our doctors give “shares” to the chief doctor from their salary every month… Moreover, prices are rising, today it is very hard to support the family. And now we will have to spend money from our own pocket to learn English language, – says the doctor.

Children’s Dental Clinic #2 is not the only place in Uzbekistan, where employees now have to learn English. There are many such state organizations, especially in capital city Tashkent. Shahodat (name changed at interviewee’s request), math teacher in one high schools in Tashkent, says that the principal of the school where she works also ordered all teachers to learn English, also at their own expense.

– At the meeting, the principal said to all teachers: “You all need to learn English.” Of course, this is today’s requirement, but it turns out we have to learn the language at our own expense. But after all, we have a very small salary, and a new order is an addition expense for us, – complains the math teacher.

Many human rights activists believe that the fact that employees of many budget organizations are forced to learn English at their own expense is a gross violation of their human rights.

It should be noted that the Uzbek government has repeatedly violated the rights of the people, who work in state funded organizations, and many of these cases had been widely covered by the independent media. The most common of the rights violations is the using of free labor of these people in cotton plantations, at construction sites, and in public clean-up events.

Observers say that the new orders of the management of budget organizations to learn English at employees’ own expense is directly linked with the recent public statement of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan for the past 22 years. In his speech the president spoke about the importance of the Internet and the role of English language.

Kamoliddin Rabbimov, Uzbek political analyst, who now lives in exile in France, says that forcing people to learn English language is yet another “political campaign” of the government of Uzbekistan.

– Just like the other things, Uzbekistani authorities have turned learning English into a political campaign – including masses, pompous, involuntarily, not calculating the necessary resources, but not spending the public funds. The authorities want to teach the public English language from the first grade in schools, but it sorely lacks the human resources – teachers, who would know English at least lightly. To achieve the objectives, the authorities have started using their favorite mechanism – forcing social actors, such as non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs, businesses and others, making each of them to “help with what they can offer”, be it human resources, finance.

It is well known that forcing is a sure way to discredit even the best intentions. If the authorities of Uzbekistan want to spread the influence of the English language in this way, it might produce quite opposite results, as it may lead to antipathy and hostility towards the English language in the broad strata of the Uzbek society, – says Kamoliddin Rabbimov.