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Draft law on education recommended to the Parliament of Azerbaijan - UPDATED

Draft law on education recommended to the Parliament of Azerbaijan - <font color=red>UPDATED</font>

16 June 2009 10:40 (UTC +04:00)

The document was submitted by committee chairman Shamsaddin Hajiyev. He said the government attached great attention to the education and one billion AZN was allocated from the state budget 2009 to this field. He said 16 state programs covering all spheres of the education were carried out in the country. Hajiyev said all opinions and proposals were taken into consideration in the six-chapter and 47-article draft law. â€œThe Ministry of Education made more than 80 proposals related to 26 articles. 60 of them were addressed completely and 10 â€“partially. The Justice Ministry made 25 proposals on 10 articles, the Ministry of Finance â€“ 20 proposals on 14 articles, the ministry of Foreign Affairs â€“ 15 proposals on 7 articles, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences â€“ 20 proposals on 11 articles, the Health Ministry â€“ three proposalsâ€.

Hajiyev said the State Commission for Student Admission proposed to remove three articles from the dart law, but its proposal was rejected. â€œThe Commission proposed to remove the article about awarding graduation golden medal and its influence on the admission examinations, admission of the students-winners of the international Olympiads, as well as master program preparation. We consider that these points described in the draft law will cause the healthy concurrence, but not negative cases. There are less 5-10 Olympiad winners among the 25-30 thousands school-leavers every yearâ€.

The committee chairman said only nearly 10 articles were not changed and others were amended. Hajiyev said to protect the national education system from the impact of outside negative cases, the draft law considers to license the foreign schools in the country not less than three years. He said according to the draft law, the education begins at age 3 and pre-school preparation begins at age 5. The period of compulsory education is not considered in the draft law.

Educational establishments are financed per student. Knowledge is assessed through tests, but the entrants are placed with their own wish. The stages and levels of the education consist of preschool education, general school, initial vocational education, secondary vocational education and higher education. The general education comprises primary education, general secondary education and complete secondary education. Higher education comprises bachelorâ€™s program, masterâ€™s program and doctoral program.

Education Minister Misir Mardanov said the bill had been prepared perfectly. The Minister offered to make amendments to the issue on uniforms of students and teachers. He said application of uniforms has been accepted in secondary schools, but application of these rules to students and teachers of higher schools is not understandable.

MP Ali Ahmadov supported soonest adoption of the bill, but protested against 3-year license for foreign educational establishments.
â€œThis term should be prolonged,â€ he said.

Rector of Diplomatic Academy under Foreign Ministry Hafiz Pashayev underlined the importance of the project on specifying terms and eliminating language defects.

Vice-speaker Bahar Muradova said there was no obstacle to adopt the document in the last reading.

After the discussions, the document was recommended to the extraordinary session of the parliament on June 19.