Uzbek teachers have been getting relatively poorer since 2017, but in 2024 they became poorer by real terms. In 2024, the average monthly wages in Uzbekistan increased by 17.4%, reaching 5.35 million soums.
However, the average wages of a school teacher increased twice as slowly, by 9.7%, reaching 3.6 million soums. Given that official inflation in Uzbekistan topped 9.8%, however it was not less than 15% in reality, the Uzbek teacher became poorer not only nominally, but also in real terms.
The average salary of a teacher failed to keep up with the average salary in Uzbekistan by 33.1% in 2024. In 2023, the lag was at 28.2%. In 2017, when the reforms began, teachers' salaries lagged behind the average salary in the country by 20%.
All in all, it is a major problem when government officials opt for lavish and showy building designs, luxury cars and business travels, instead of better infrastructure, schools, financial support to vulnerable people and many other pressing issues. In other words, being heedlessly lavish in expenditures is reckless profligacy and financial irresponsibility amid privation and while starvation wages are paid to schoolteachers, kindergarten workers, public health workers, cleaners at municipal service and many others.
