xxviii. IN TAJIKISTAN Modern education in Tajikistan developed
as the country emerged as a Soviet socialist republic, under the
Soviet policy of standardizing the educational system throughout
the Soviet Union, with language as virtually the only variable.
In Tajikistan, as in other Central Asian republics, this policy
brought about nearly universal literacy and establishment of
institutions of secondary and higher education that provided
training in a wide range of occupations required by the local
economy. Before the Soviets consolidated their control of
Central Asia in 1924 the territory of Tajikistan was divided
between the emirate of Bukhara (q.v.) and the province of
Samarkand in Russian Turkestan. Three parallel educational
systems functioned in these areas. The first was a centuries-old
system of traditional schooling in maktabs and madrasas (see
iii, iv, above; CENTRAL ASIA ix), which had gained strength
through the 19th century. The curriculum usually included Arabic
conjugation and syntax (ṣarf wa