Tajikistan - Education
The adult illiteracy rate was estimated at 0.8% for the year 2000 (males, 0.4%; females, 1.1%). Before the country came under Soviet control in 1920, there were no state-supported schools, only Islamic ones. Since then, many schools have been built. Education is free and compulsory between the ages of 7 and 17. Since 1989, there has been an increased emphasis on Tajik language, literature, and culture. In 1997 there were 638,674 primary students in 3,432 schools, with 27,172 teachers. Student-to-teacher ratio stood at 24 to 1. In the same year, secondary schools enrolled 688,150 students and had 112,532 teachers. The pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level was 22 to 1 in 1999. In the same year, 87% of primary-school-age children were enrolled in school. There are 10 schools of higher education including the Universities of Dushanbe and Khudzhand. In 1995, all higherlevel institutions had a total of 108,203 pupils. In 1997, universities enrolled 76,613 students.