“Absolutely against”. Tashkent mayor — on PPP and private facilities on the territory of schools and kindergartens

“Absolutely against”. Tashkent khokim — on PPP and private facilities on the territory of schools and kindergartens

The khokim of Tashkent city, Shavkat Umurzoqov, expressed his opposition to transferring the territories of state schools and kindergartens to public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

Touching upon the issue of returning previously allocated lands to the state, Umurzoqov said that among the cases under consideration are school territories allocated for PPP projects, as well as land plots that were previously removed from school territories and transferred to the khokimiyat, and then to other persons.

“I am pursuing a policy absolutely against transferring school and kindergarten territories to PPP projects in Tashkent. I am in favor of building only state schools or kindergartens in such territories,” he said.

To Gazeta's clarifying question of whether there should not even be a private educational institution on the territory of a state school or kindergarten, the khokim answered in the affirmative.

“There should not be a private one either. Based on people's solvency and the social situation, today I can say that the state itself is capable of building such facilities, and district khokims can also build them. When there is no money, perhaps, as you say, doing a PPP project is a good and correct solution,” said the head of the city administration.

According to Shavkat Umurzoqov, the public-private partnership mechanism can be used in other city facilities.

“I would apply PPP in other areas. For example, we can auction bus stops to businesses: if an entrepreneur pays money, cleans and maintains the facility, and in the end the property still remains with the state, and they create normal infrastructure there without building a disruptive shop, why not use this?” he said.

However, when it comes to the territories of educational and medical institutions, the khokim proposed a different approach.

“But education is a different matter. If they ask whether PPP projects should be allowed within the territory of healthcare, educational facilities, schools, kindergartens, institutes, I would say no,” said the head of the capital's administration.

As one of the acceptable directions of PPP in the field of higher education, Umurzoqov mentioned the construction of student dormitories.

“At the same time, there is a good example of PPP in higher education — the construction of student dormitories. If a university lacks a dormitory, it can allocate territory, and the private sector, in agreement with the university, builds a dormitory within the framework of PPP. This is a different thing. But if someone comes and says: 'I will build a private institute on the territory of the university,' I will be against it,” he said.

In recent years, a number of controversial situations related to the use of territories of educational institutions have arisen in Tashkent.

At the end of July 2026, the khokimiyat studied the situation related to school No. 271 in the Yunusabad district. It turned out that 4,000 sq. m of this school's territory was leased to the Asian School company on the basis of a PPP agreement and a lease contract.

At the same time, the inspection did not reveal cases of unauthorized land seizure or illegal construction, and the plot and the facilities on it were registered on the basis of current documents. According to the results of the study, the fence of the territory was removed and the land plot was restored to its previous state.

Another incident occurred in August near school No. 243 in the "Orzu" mahalla of the Olmazor district.

There, the edge of a pit excavated for the construction of a hotel collapsed.

According to mahalla representatives, this plot was previously given to the school, and later a part of the school territory was allocated for construction. According to them, initially, an announcement about the construction of a two-story library was posted on the fence, but later the construction of another facility began.

In May 2025, Kun.uz reported on another case in the Uchtepa district.

According to the Inspectorate for Control in the Field of Construction and Housing and Communal Services, the project of the facility was initially agreed upon as a private school building, but in practice, a multi-story residential building began to be built on this site. The inspectorate repeatedly issued written instructions, but construction continued.

In 2022, former deputy Rasul Kusherbayev said that since 2018, nearly 70 hectares of land in the territories of 198 schools in Uzbekistan had been illegally seized.

Almost a third of these cases occurred in the Andijan region — 24.8 hectares in 61 schools. In Tashkent, it was about 0.2 hectares of land of three schools.

Since September 2018, the seizure of land and real estate of general secondary and extracurricular educational institutions without agreement with the Minister of Public Education (now the Minister of Preschool and School Education) has been prohibited, except in cases provided for by presidential documents.