Editing Dushanbe (section)

== Education ==
[[File:Madrasseh at Hisor - panoramio.jpg|thumb|Madrassa just west of Dushanbe]]
Before the Soviet invasion, education was limited in Dushanbe, mainly consisting of [[madrasa]]s that taught the [[Quran]] and Persian and Arabic along with geography, geometry, algebra, and other sciences. After the invasion, the Soviet Union closed the madrasas down.<ref name="Huisman-2018a">{{Cite book|title=25 years of transformations of higher education systems in post-Soviet countries : reform and continuity|date=24 April 2018|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|others=Huisman, Jeroen, Smolentseva, Anna, Froumin, Isak|series=Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education|isbn=978-3-319-52980-6|location=[[Cham, Switzerland]]|pages=364–366|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-52980-6|oclc=1035812764|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[File:Donishgohi davlatii omuzgorii Tojikiston ba nomi K Juraev.JPG|thumb|Dushanbe State Pedagogical Institute, the first university in Dushanbe]]
The Soviet education system was considered a success for its time, achieving close to 100% literacy through a large scale literacy program and compulsory education along with the inclusion of girls in education.<ref name="Dushanbe Encyc-2004h">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65068362|title=Dushanbe : ėnt︠s︡iklopedii︠a︡|date=2004|publisher=Glavnai︠a︡ nauchnai︠a︡ redakt︠s︡ii︠a︡ Tadzhikskoĭ nat︠s︡ionalʹnoĭ ėnt︠s︡iklopedii|others=Dinorshoev, Muso.|isbn=5-89870-071-4|location=Dushanbe|chapter=Education|oclc=65068362|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028115236/http://dushanbe.tj/img/ENS.doc|archive-date=28 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="Huisman-2018a" />

The People's Commissariat of Education of the Tajik SSR was created on 11 February 1925 in Dushanbe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Вазорати илм ва маорифи Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон|url=http://maorif.tj/tarih/inilobi-oktyabr-va-taavvuli-soai-maorif-soloi-1917-1940|url-status=live|archive-date=2020-08-04|access-date=2021-01-16|website=Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tajikistan|publisher=Вазорати маориф ва илми Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804145804/http://maorif.tj/tarih/inilobi-oktyabr-va-taavvuli-soai-maorif-soloi-1917-1940|language=tg}}</ref> Higher education began to be established in the 1930s with the creation of [[Tajik State Pedagogical University|a pedagogical institute]] in Dushanbe in 1931. In 1939, the [[Tajik State Medical University]] was founded in Dushanbe and soon after in 1944 the Tajik Agrarian Institute moved to Dushanbe. Before the outbreak of World War Two, there were 32 secondary schools and two institutes in the city.<ref name="Davidzon-1983b"/> While World War 2 slowed the growth of higher education, afterwards in 1947 the [[Tajik National University|Tajik State University]] was created. In 1956 a polytechnic institute was created in the city along with the Institute of Physical Culture in 1971, the Institute of Arts in 1973, and the Tajik Pedagogical Institute of Russian Language and Literature in 1980 which became the Tajik State Institute of Languages in 1987. In 1990, the [[Technological University of Tajikistan]] was founded.<ref name="Huisman-2018a" />

The Soviet system was based on the needs of the economy; the agrarian, medical, and polytechnic institutes were all founded to aid the economy. Outside of that, most higher education in the system were in the form of pedagogical colleges. Restrictions on political subjects such as history hampered advancements in those fields.<ref name="Huisman-2018a" /> After independence, universities less precisely tailored their courses to the economy and as a result other professions proliferated in schools such as the [[Tajik University of Law, Business and Politics]].<ref name="Huisman-2018d">{{Cite book|title=25 years of transformations of higher education systems in post-Soviet countries : reform and continuity|date=24 April 2018|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|others=Huisman, Jeroen, Smolentseva, Anna, Froumin, Isak|series=Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education|isbn=978-3-319-52980-6|location=[[Cham, Switzerland]]|page=374|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-52980-6|oclc=1035812764|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The civil war after independence devastated the education system of the city, with state budgets falling from 11% to 2% during the time period. While state spending declined, private institutions temporarily developed in the market economy, accounting for growth in the number of universities in Dushanbe after independence.<ref name="Huisman-2018b" />

The modern state university in Dushanbe, the [[Tajik State Pedagogical University]], has an enrollment in the thousands. Institutions such as the Tajik Technical University, the Tajik Agrarian University, the [[Tajik State University of Commerce]] and the [[Technological University of Tajikistan]], some of which existed during the Soviet era, grew and admitted anywhere from 5000 to 9000 students.<ref name="Huisman-2018b">{{Cite book|title=25 years of transformations of higher education systems in post-Soviet countries : reform and continuity|date=24 April 2018|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|others=Huisman, Jeroen, Smolentseva, Anna, Froumin, Isak|series=Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education|isbn=978-3-319-52980-6|location=[[Cham, Switzerland]]|pages=368–372|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-52980-6|oclc=1035812764|doi-access=free}}</ref> Specialized and technical schools also expanded significantly.<ref name="Dushanbe Encyc-2004h" />[[File:Tajik National University (Main Building).jpg|thumb|Tajik National University]] Today, 60% of university students in Tajikistan are enrolled in Dushanbe, which has 23 universities with 103,600 students, 13 colleges with 16,100 students enrolled and 140 schools that have 180,800 students.<ref name="Abdullaev-2018a" /> As of 2015, there is one national university in Dushanbe, the [[Tajik National University]], 7 specialized universities, 4 international bilateral institutions, and 12 institutes in the capital.<ref name="Parstoday-2020" /><ref name="РТСУ-2018" />  In the 2018/2019 academic year, there were 23 higher education institutions with 103,600 students. There were also 124 preschools and 140 general education schools in the city.<ref name="Dushanbe-2021a" />

The Russian-language [[Russian-Tajik Slavonic University]] was created in the 1990s during a trend of closure of Russian language instruction due to the exodus of Russians during the civil war. The Islamic Institute of Tajikistan, created with the goal of countering Islamic extremism, had 924 students as of 2020.<ref name="Parstoday-2020">{{Cite web|date=2020-07-22|title=Бемайлии донишҷӯёни аз хориҷ бозгашта ба идомаи таҳсил дар Донишкадаи исломии Тоҷикистон|url=https://parstoday.com/tg/news/tajikistan-i55700|access-date=2020-09-20|website=Parstoday|language=tg}}</ref><ref name="РТСУ-2018">{{Cite web|date=2018-01-01|title=РТСУ – 15 лет {{!}} Новости Таджикистана ASIA-Plus|url=http://www.news.tj/ru/news/rtsu-15-let|access-date=2020-09-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101232220/http://www.news.tj/ru/news/rtsu-15-let|archive-date=1 January 2018}}</ref> The University of International Relations, which was founded by a [[Tajik American|Tajik-American]], was founded in opposition to the government and produced opposition leaders until it was shut down. In 2009, due to the efforts of [[Emomali Rahmon]], a [[Moscow State University, Dushanbe|Dushanbe branch]] of the [[Moscow State University]] was opened. 70% of the instructors are Russian, while only 30% are Tajik. Other branches of Russian universities in Dushanbe include a branch of the [[Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys|Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloy]] and a branch of the [[Moscow Power Engineering Institute|Moscow Energy Institute]].<ref name="Huisman-2018b" />

The [[Tajik National University]] is the most prominent in the city and the country. With an enrollment of over 21,000 students and a large number of programs it is the flagship university of Tajikistan. Uniquely, the university is directly funded by the government while also being more independent of it compared to other state universities. While in principle this provides academic freedom, in reality the government is still heavily involved, censors content, and controls appointments at the university.<ref name="Huisman-2018c">{{Cite book|title=25 years of transformations of higher education systems in post-Soviet countries : reform and continuity|date=24 April 2018|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|others=Huisman, Jeroen, Smolentseva, Anna, Froumin, Isak|series=Palgrave Studies in Global Higher Education|isbn=978-3-319-52980-6|location=[[Cham, Switzerland]]|pages=376–378|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-52980-6|oclc=1035812764|doi-access=free}}</ref> Dushanbe's education system is still heavily managed by the national government, a relic of Soviet times. Other schools include the [[Tajikistan Humanitarian International University]], the [[Dushanbe International School]], and the Tax Law Institute, now the Tajik State University of Finance and Economics.<ref name="Dushanbe Encyc-2004h" /><ref name="Huisman-2018d" /><ref name="Huisman-2018c" />