Tajikistan: between defying despair and missing opportunities

September 2011, Tajikistan celebrated its 20th anniversary of independence, which defied many external and oppositional cries of crisis, failure and imminent collapse. Tajikistan has not only survived but increasingly appears a viable state with ambitious aspirations. This chapter presents a descriptive story of the educational situation in post-Soviet Tajikistan. We build on our research and personal and professional experiences, data from international agencies and websites and comparative scholarship in Central Asian education. We start with the context of educational reform. We have taken a critical constructive approach to highlight the continuities and changes, achievements, issues and challenges in Tajikistan's post-Soviet education. We take our readers through a brief journey into the context, content, structure, financing and governance, teacher education, privatization and internationalization of its education. We acknowledge that Tajikistan has come a long way in reforming its education while maintaining some of the key features of the Soviet system...