Lieutenant Colonel Ghairat Abdullayev, chief inspector of the Spiritual and Educational Affairs Service of the Department of Spiritual and Educational Affairs and Staffing of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has been serving in the system of internal affairs bodies for 16 years. He studied at the MIA Academy in 2023. His wife, Malika Abdullayeva, is an English teacher at the MIA Specialized Boarding School. She is a highly qualified English teacher with international credentials and a recipient of the Excellence in Public Education badge. She graduated from Webster University in 2024. In this family, parents do not recognize the limit of "schooling is finished".
The parents therefore sought to create every possible opportunity for their son Javohir to receive a strong education, serve his country faithfully, and become a capable professional. In this sense, the role of the family environment in Javohir’s success today is invaluable. In this family, service is a duty, knowledge is a value, work is a way of life, and the result is a responsibility. A child raised in such an environment naturally developed high ambitions.
In 2026, more than 18,000 candidates registered for the first open scholarship competition of the El-Yurt Umidi Foundation. 210 talented young people, who recorded high results in the test and interview stages, were recognized as "El-Yurt Umidi" scholarship winners of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The presence of Javohir Abdullayev among them was the result of years of family support and the young man’s own dedicated effort.
Javohir did not achieve this result overnight. He is a graduate of the specialized school named after Muhammad al-Khorazmi, and scored IELTS 7.0 on the international English language test and SAT 1480 on the international math test. His achievements are not limited to international certificates. Last year, he won the 2nd place in the Open Data Hackathon Championship organized in cooperation with New Uzbekistan University and IT Park. This year, he became a semi-finalist of the Harvard Business Case Competition. During his student years, he led the volunteers of the specialized school named after Muhammad al-Khorazmi. These facts show one thing: For Javohir, knowledge is not limited to classrooms and textbooks. He is eager to test what he has learned, work with a team, take initiative and take on leadership responsibilities.
Javohir Abdullayev was able to study at the Shanghai branch of the New York University, which ranked 55th in the 2026 ranking, through the El-Yurt Umidi scholarship. This branch is distinguished by an international educational environment. Along with Chinese students, young people from more than 70 countries of the world study here. Such an environment is another great school for Javohir. After all, he not only acquires new knowledge, but also shares ideas with his peers from different countries of the world, gets acquainted with new ideas, and tries himself in international projects.
It is a great honor to be the winner of the El-Yurt Umidi scholarship. Now Javohir faces the task of gaining knowledge, learning new technologies, getting acquainted with different cultures and views, and expanding his opportunities in one of the world's most prestigious educational environments. But the most important destination of this road is to return to the Motherland as a capable and accomplished professional.
Dilrabo ABDUHAMIDOVA,
expert reporter,
senior lieutenant.