Governance challenges for initiatives on out-of-school children in Tajikistan

This paper is concerned with the initiatives on out-of-school children in Tajikistan. While the Tajik government has published the National Strategy for Education Development 2015 and 2020, which sketches out a national vision for universal access to quality education to all children and young people in the country, this paper attempts to investigate the extent to which this national vision has been implemented, and examines factors affecting the implementation of the national strategy. In doing this, we make use of the data set of the UN ICEF Study on Out-of-School Children, Tajikistan Country Study 2012. Our analysis suggests that there are disjunctions in educational governance: between the expectation of the government and the capacity of the school system, with regard to financial sustainability; between the responsibility of the government and that of the local community with regard to tackling socio-cultural barriers. The paper concludes with some insights into sustained connection between national initiatives on out-of-school children and local responses and adaptations. Copyright © 2013 World Congress of Comparative Education Societies.