Maryam Yakubova (educator)

Maryam Yakubova was an Uzbek teacher and school administrator born on May 12, 1931, in Urgench, who died on April 10, 2018, after a career spanning more than five decades in the Soviet and Uzbek public education system. She graduated with honors from the Khorezm Pedagogical State Institute in 1952, qualifying to teach mathematics and physics, and began her working life as a mathematics and physics instructor at School No. 1 in Urgench from 1952 to 1958. She then headed Urgench's public education department from 1958 to 1962 before taking charge of health boarding school No. 94 in Urgench, where she served as director from 1962 to 1992, a tenure of three decades devoted to the schooling of children with health needs. In recognition of her contribution to public education she was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966 and was named a People's Teacher of the USSR in 1986, one of the highest honors given to educators in the Soviet Union, alongside numerous other state and regional accolades for her work advancing schooling in Uzbekistan.