"Ignorance is the darkest night for humanity." The author of this wisdom, the great Eastern philosopher Confucius, was right a thousand times over in this respect. After all, if knowledge elevates humanity, then ignorance only leads it to the bottom, into the abyss. There are many examples of this in human civilization.

In the period after our independence, the state policy was updated, statehood was built, but in this period, along with successes, there were unforgivable mistakes. The biggest of the shortcomings is the lack of attention to science and knowledge. Schools and universities are in a deplorable state, male teachers have fled schools and universities.

      In 2008, an order was issued to dismiss all academicians and professors who have reached the age of 60. I think it was one of the biggest mistakes. At that time, it was time for me to gain strength in science. At some point, I felt like I had lost everything. It was hard not only for me, but also for academicians, professors, the intelligentsia of all Uzbekistan.

      When I experienced such depression, when I received offers to teach from prestigious universities in foreign countries, all my experience for many years was spent in universities in other countries.

      He taught in his specialty at universities in the USA, Italy, Russia and other countries. Some of the Uzbek academic professors, like me, went abroad and worked at universities. Even if it's a shame, I'll tell you: many intellectuals went to the "hippodrome" and traded. We also saw people who didn't know what to do. Is it right to sit on the "hippodrome" and work as a "taxi driver" instead of educating and educating young people? How can there be development in a country where science and knowledge are not given due attention, where higher education institutions, schools, medicine, agriculture and other areas are abandoned?

Now they are back in business. Many research institutes of the Academy of Sciences were closed. As a result of today's policy, almost all research institutes are reopening. Attention is paid to science, education, especially women's, entrepreneurship.

      At the end of 2016, the President gathered academicians of UzFA and held a discussion. There has never been such an event in history. Great opportunities and conditions are being created for academicians and professors. In recent years, branches of international universities have been opened in our country. At first it was impossible. In the past, some of my colleagues and I opened a branch of one of the foreign universities in Uzbekistan, but, unfortunately, it was also closed. It's a very sad memory...

      For example, recently at SamSU. Sharof Rashidov, the Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology and Food Security was opened. Since 2017, by the decision of our government, an international scientific conference on food security has been held at Samarkand State University. Recently, many regulations and decrees on food safety have been issued in our country. As a specialist in this field, I can say that these works, first of all, serve to increase the export potential of Uzbekistan and increase its position in world markets. All this is welcome and is of great interest to my colleagues in the United States.

      It must be admitted that over the past 25 years, representatives of an illiterate generation have grown up who cannot even write their names correctly. Unfortunately, in science there are people who have received scientific degrees with someone's support or other factors, and their brains are empty. When they have nothing to do, they try to achieve their goals by copying and other difficult ways, but times are changing. The era of such people will soon end. Our modernized society now crushes them anyway.

      When I was a student at Harvard University in the US, a motto in the university library caught my attention: "The pain of learning is temporary, the pain of ignorance is eternal." Harvard lives up to that motto. There is no such thing as "please" or "someone". A person who has not passed the exam will not be upset, he will not run around and reproach himself. Silently, he enters the library, reads his book, and after paying the money, takes the exam again the following year. There are even people who have been failing the exam for 5 years. In total, the university has 80 large and small libraries. 80 libraries in one university!

      Another interesting fact: 12 out of 46 US presidents are graduates of Harvard University. Half the wealth of the world's billionaires is owned by students at Harvard University. For example, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, David Rockefeller and others… in total, 79 Nobel laureates graduated from Harvard.

      My point is that only a country with a strong focus on science can be rich and powerful. Today, Uzbekistan has embarked on this path. However, ignorant people are more dangerous than criminals.

Bakriddin Zaripov,

Professor, academician of Samarkand State University.