Although the instruction on the procedure for disseminating best practices of teachers provides for the non-issuance of certificates for work disseminated at the school level, some individuals, contrary to this norm, began to sell certificates to teachers for work disseminated at the school level. This situation became known during the study conducted by "Xalqtaliminfo."

It is noted that the cost of a certificate issued for work popularized at the school level is set at 49 thousand soums. SMS notifications were sent from 4546 to the personal phone number of teachers whose work was popularized at the school level. In this message, a proposal was made to download a PDF certificate for a work that was popularized at the school level for 49 thousand soums.

Are the ministry officials also involved in this?

Firstly, SMS messages with an invitation to receive a certificate for a popular work at the school were sent to the phone numbers of teachers registered on the ommalashtirish.uz platform. That is, the personal data of teachers were used without their permission.

Secondly, through the official @ommalashtirishishuzbot, which belongs to the Republican Education Center under the Ministry of Preschool and School Education and the National Institute of Pedagogical Excellence named after A. Avloni, advertising texts were also sent to teachers with a proposal to download a certificate for work popularized at the school level for 49 thousand soums.

In the next stage, teachers were directed to a special informal bot, and it was through this bot that certificates were sold to teachers. (Currently, this bot and its data have been deleted for unknown reasons)

As is known, the official platform @ommalashtirishishuzbot, belonging to the Ministry of Preschool and School Education, was created by the Republican Education Center to answer questions and obtain a special code for registration. Information about this bot is also available on the RTM's official Telegram page.

Thirdly, teachers who were deceived by these illegal offers and bought a certificate for 49 thousand soums were presented with an official certificate generated on the ommalashtirish.uz platform, stamped in the form of an electronic QR code by the acting director of the Republican Education Center D.Narbaeva and the rector of the A.Avloni National Institute of Pedagogical Excellence A.Ismailov.

A noteworthy aspect of the issue is that when the QR code on the certificate provided for the work popularized at the school level is scanned, it can be seen that this certificate is also available on the ministry's official platform ommalashtirish.uz.

Also, when determining the founders of the aforementioned LLC "Startup-Invest," we see that 50 percent of its share belongs to Dilshod Bobokulov, Head of the Department for the Development of Digital Education of the Republican Education Center (according to the information on the official website of the REC), and 50 percent belongs to FALCON HOLDINGS LLC. This data indicates that organizations under the Ministry of Preschool and School Education may also be directly involved in the situation related to the sale of certificates to teachers.

The open use of teachers' personal data, sending them messages through an official bot, as well as the presentation of a certified certificate on the ommalashtirish.uz platform, further increases these doubts.

The situation will be legally assessed

The Republican Education Center has not yet commented on this situation. However, the National Institute of Pedagogical Skills named after Abdulla Avloni stated that the Ministry's Anti-Corruption and Legal Control Department is currently conducting an investigation.

"According to preliminary information, misconduct was committed by an employee of the Republican Education Center, abusing their official duties. In connection with the news spread on social networks, this situation has now been stopped, and a legal assessment of the actions of this employee will be provided in the future," the institute said in a statement.