The aims and representatives of the Jadids

According to the textbook, the Jadids aimed to fight fanaticism, indifference and backwardness and to lead the region from the “old method” to the path of progress. They expressed their programme in points: to free the region from medievalism, feudal backwardness and superstition; to build a national state; to build a free society with a constitution and a parliament; to give Turkic languages the status of state language; and to create a national currency and a national army. In practice their priority work was to widen the network of new-method schools, send talented youths abroad to study, form educational societies and theatre troupes, and publish newspapers and journals. In new-method schools arithmetic, history, geography and basics of natural science were taught together with religious knowledge. According to the textbook, such schools were few at the end of the 19th century; in 1910 in Tashkent alone 1740 children studied in 24 Jadid schools, by 1911 the number of schools reached 63 with 4106 pupils, and by 1917 there were about 100 schools. At first textbooks published in Kazan and Orenburg were used. The Jadids also paid attention to the education of women and took the initiative in teaching boys and girls together. Their centres were Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, Andijan, Kokand and Khiva.