In November 2018, the Republic of Uzbekistan Ministry of Preschool and School Education (MoPSE) announced its Information Technology Nation initiative, which is aimed at producing graduates with the ability to work in cyber security, software development and testing, network administration, graphic design, animation, and game design. To achieve these outcomes, the public education system began addressing a series of critical constraints, including access to information and communication technology (ICT) hardware and broadband access at the school level, time allocated to ICT classes, and outdated standards and curriculum for ICT education, which should better reflect assessments of ICT skills and current labor market and university demands.

The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Uzbekistan Education for Excellence Program supported the Ministry to review the standards and curriculum, a supportive teacher professional approach, and piloting to enhance ICT instruction. The Program mobilized local experts from the Republican Education Center and international experts from Mississippi State University’s International Institute and Center for Cyber Education to begin the process by developing standards for grades 1–11 for ICT education. ICT standards development is a major step toward Uzbekistan’s vision of producing graduates with critical thinking, problem-solving, and practical skills that will enable them to succeed. This brief provides an overview of the development and review of ICT student learning standards and scopes and sequences.