He thanked the teachers from the name of all citizens for devoting their lives to the education of the growing generation and spreading the experience and knowledge to the young people, UzA reported.

It was you who carried on their shoulders the solution of the important task of upbringing harmonically developed, physically and mentally healthy younger generation over the years, the President said.

He said Uzbekistan had paid a great attention to education from the first days of the country’s independence. The national program of personnel training and the state program of school education development were adopted, and their implementation is nearing completion.

Over the past four years, 8,500 schools were built and reconstructed in the country. Of that number, 350 new schools were built, 2470 reconstructed, 3600 capitally repaired and 2070 underwent current repairs.

The schools are being provided with the newest equipment and study materials, computers, textbooks and other means. The number of physics, chemistry and biology laboratories increased more than 3 times and the number of gyms increased almost 1.5 times compared to 2004, the head of the state noted.

A total of 1.5 trillion soums was spent for the implementation of the school education development program during 2004-2009.

In accordance with the personnel training program, since 1997, 1,364 professional colleges and 137 academic lyceums were built. A total of almost 2.37 trillion soums was spent for the implementation of this program, Islam Karimov said.

On Monday, the head of the state signed a decree on awarding a large number of teachers with various state awards.