WE GET THE BEST MARK

Perhaps, one of the most important events of the year in Azerbaijan's education system is the 33rd Baku conference of the International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) on "Interdependance of National Assessment Systems and Educational Standards". The conference was held from 16 to 21 September with the assistance of the State Students Admission Commission of Azerbaijan (SSAC) which joined the IAEA in 1999. Conferences of this kind have been held by the IAEA since 1975. Our country has taken part in them since 2002.

It must be noted that Azerbaijan is the first CIS country that hosted an IAEA conference, though there were many countries that could host this conference. The conference was attended by 216 representatives from 40 countries: Australia, Barbados, Britain, Gambia, the USA, Germany, Russia, India, Malaysia, Kenya, Kazakhstan, etc. Judging by the high level of the conference, we can confidently say that it was brilliantly organized by the SSAC. Both organizers and participants told our R+ correspondent that they were happy with its work. It must be noted that the holding of such a prestigious and important conference in Baku implies the recognition of the experience of Azerbaijan, specifically of the SSAC, in assessing and systemizing student knowledge. This was also pointed out in a congratulatory letter from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to participants in the conference. He stressed that Azerbaijan has been using a special test system of student assessment for 15 years, and this system has proved to be effective in our country. The president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and UNESCO and ISESCO good will ambassador, MP Mehriban Aliyeva, said in her letter that the government of Azerbaijan is paying great attention to the development of an effective education system because the future of the country depends on this.

Improving assessment technologies

In conversation with our R+ correspondent, the chair of the SSAC, Maleyka Abbaszada, said that a great deal of work had been carried out to organize such an important and prestigious event in Baku. "We had to prove that everything would be done at a high level. We spent a whole year preparing for this. We sent detailed plans and reports to UNESCO for approval. We expressed our desire to host this event at last year's 32nd conference which was held in Singapore. According to the rules, every country that hosts this event should present the advantages of its education system and its ability to organize such important forums. We knew what we were doing. I can say that we spent 15 years to achieve this. If it were not for our experience and contribution to the development of the national education system, Azerbaijan would not have been the host country. This is also recognized by international experts. Azerbaijan first took part in such a conference in Hong Kong. Then we dreamt of hosting an international conference in Baku. Sometimes dreams come true," Abbaszada said.

We can judge how important the subject of the conference was by the titles of reports made by its participants: "The National Education System", "Experience and Achievements", "Selection for Admission to Graduate Level Education", "Assessment in Admission to Civil Service", "Corruption in Education and Assessment Systems", "The Role of Technology in Assessment", "School-based Assessment", "Assessment in a Multiethnic Society", etc.

Asked by our R+ correspondent, IAEA president Sydell Carlton said that the main purpose of such conferences is to improve relations between organizations engaged in the academic assessment by exchanging experience. "The IAEA ensures structural work on the basis of which joint research, teaching and projects are carried out. I should say that the IAEA is a non-government organization that unites organizations working in the sphere of education worldwide. The aim of our conference can be clearly identified from its name: "Interdependance of National Assessment Systems and Educational Standards". Within a few days, representatives of different countries managed to discuss several issues, exchange experience in the sphere of education and talk about ways of solving problems in the sphere of education. This is a kind of search for the most suitable assessment technologies to solve education problems," she pointed out.

Carlton stressed the significant achievements of the State Students Admission Commission of Azerbaijan. "You have managed to create an equal education system both in the centre and in regions of the country. This is a serious contribution to the development of the national education system. Neighbouring countries should learn from your experience. On the whole, I am pleased with the results of the Baku meeting, for its main purpose - closer cooperation between organizations working in this sphere to improve the quality of education - was achieved," the IAEA president said.

Representatives of CIS education organizations also highly rated the quality of student assessment in Azerbaijan. For example, the director of the National Centre for State Standards and Tests, Isatay Sagindikov, told R+ that Kazakhstan should use Azerbaijan's experience in organizing the security of university admission exams. Apart from that, the SSAC has organized the pre-examination training of school leavers at a high level by setting up various training tests, publishing thematical booklets and so on. 

"Kazakhstan recently adopted a new law on education which clearly says how education will be developing in our country. According to the Bologna Process, which we signed in 1997, we will be switching to a so-called 12-year education system. Thus, beginning from the 10th form - the second phase of education, a teenager will have to decide how he will continue his education and what he will be studying in the last two years. Universities are expected to switch to a three-stage education system: bachelor, magistrate and doctor's degrees. The National Centre for State Education and Test Standards (NCSETS) is overseeing the quality of students' knowledge and is monitoring the education system. In secondary schools (in the fourth and ninth forms), we carry out so-called intermediate state monitoring and in the eleventh form - a single national test which combines the state assessment of pupils and university admission exams. Incidentally, tests points are counted on the spot. The NCSETS has 155 branches in the country, which makes it possible to announce the results of the exams within a few hours. The centralized system that you have would be rejected by our public as they would think it is not transparent. Intermediate state monitoring also applies to second-year students, which makes it possible to test their knowledge. Those who fail the exam remain in the same form for a second year. If there are too many students who remain in the same form for a second year, we have the right to strip the institution of higher education of its licence to this or that faculty. For example, this year we were forced to close 30 private universities," Isatay Sagindikov said.

The Russian delegation led by the director of the National Accreditation Agency of Russia, Vladimir Navodnov, also acknowledged the contribution of the State Students Admission Commission of Azerbaijan, "The system that Azerbaijan has taken on board was developed in the USA. But you are probably the first post-Soviet country to have developed an independent system of testing the quality of education. Many countries are following your example at the moment. For example, Kazakhstan and Russia. Over the last 15 years, the Russian system of higher education has considerably changed. If in the Soviet Union there were 1,200 institutions of higher education, Russia alone has 1,400 now. Half of them are state-owned and the rest are private. For this reason, assessing the quality of education is the number one issue in Russia. Many of my colleagues see eye-to-eye that it is time to create a clear-cut system of criteria. The first step in this direction has already been taken - a system of licensing (a licence to educational activity) and accreditation (a certificate showing that the quality of education complies with state educational standards) has already been created. We managed to discuss all these issues at this conference in Baku. We have a kind of dividing line - in the secondary education system there is a single state exam and in the professional education system - a form of computer testing. What is the peculiarity of the single state exam? First, this exam is the final state appraisal of a school leaver and at the same time, a university admission exam. Second, the same types of exercises and a single assessment system are being used in the whole of Russia. Computer tests for students are aimed at checking the implementation of the requirements of state education standards of professional education. Its aim is to form single requirements for assessing the quality of specialist education," he said.

Navodnov also said that the CIS education organizations decided in Baku to set up an association that would make decisions to eliminate problems in former Soviet republics. "We have common problems and similar mentality. Representatives of foreign states simply do not understand the specific feature of many of our difficulties. For this reason, we decided to set up an association to assess the quality of education in the CIS, and this issue was discussed with the chair of the State Students Admission Commission of Azerbaijan, Maleyka Abbaszada."

There is no limit to perfection

In conversation with R+, Abbaszada also said that the State Students Admission Commission has suggested carrying out an education audit according to international standards in Azerbaijan. "Our partners from the ETS - the US Educational Testing Service - also said this. I have to say that this organization has been engaged in auditing work since the beginning of the 20th century. The whole educational environment of the country is analyzed in the process of assessment. What is the educational environment? This is the content of what is taught in schools, and participants in this process are teachers and the pedagogical community, pupils and their parents, and people - so-called "design makers" - who make certain decisions. Decisions taken to develop exams are influenced by the whole educational process," Abbaszada said.

Asked what methods of assessing the quality of education Azerbaijan can learn from other countries, Abbaszada pointed out that "we get ideas at such conferences. But it does not mean that we will grasp any idea and immediately start using it in Azerbaijan. We familiarized ourselves with the report made by guests from Holland. They spoke about new interesting projects of exams held with the help of computers. We are thinking about this as well, and have been working for two years in order to organize it in our country. We carry out surveys and pilot projects, discuss them, and only after that, can we introduce anything specific. But first and foremost, it is necessary to organize a legal environment  - to ensure that these procedures comply with the law. We have to work on the law, i.e. all these are components of the process. What you can see now is a scientific search, a free exchange of ideas and the necessary environment. People who make decisions cannot introduce innovations only because some ideas have crossed their mind. They should definitely take part in this scientific process.

"But there is an expression - there is no limit to perfection. The unique nature of our organization is that we are not just holding exams. In fact, we are a government agency and are subordinate to the president in the structure of Azerbaijan's education system. We all just need to be bureaucrats who carry out some functions. This is the way many ministries are working in the country. This is natural. But we have somewhat different functions and a different approach. The test system was a new approach, and at the same time, we are people who carry out research in this sphere. If the SSAC headquarters have only 50 members of staff, they are all related to the entire education system through a system of seminars. Experts working in different institutions of higher education spoke about the development of test knowledge here. They cooperate with us on the basis of a contract. We have involved the whole pedagogical community in this process, and they are constantly given these ideas. But before accepting these ideas and making them administrative functions, we carry out some preliminary work.

"What participants in the process, school leavers and their parents can see is only the tip of the iceberg the visible part of which is much smaller than its invisible part. This is a process that is going on in the whole world. People who make decisions in this sphere have consulted each other for 33 years. When such conferences were launched in the world 33 years ago, there was no such system in Azerbaijan. I myself was a student and did not think about it. I only studied mathematics.

"Nonetheless, this scientific process was under way. In Azerbaijan, we have been engaged in this sphere for 15 years. A person usually spends 10 years at school and five years at university, and then he becomes a specialist. We are 15 years old, so we have already left school and graduated from university, we turn 15 this year and the international conference is being held in our country. This means that as an organization and scientists, we are successful in this sphere. The conference could not have been hosted by specialists who have just started working in this sphere. All this means that our scientific findings and experience have been recognized. And our experience is quite complicated. If in developed countries schools and universities have always been interested in this process, and have wanted exams to be held exactly in this way, in our country everything was the other way round. We have always developed in quite an aggressive environment. But this is happening not just in our country, but in other CIS countries as well. And we managed to stand this test. The system is now functioning in Azerbaijan. In terms of mathematical analysis, this is an open socio-technical system. At the same time, this definition should certainly be supported by special software and hardware. There should be a special structure of administrative measures and scientific research related to the development of tests. And this is being examined as a complex."

As for assessing the level of education in the country, Abbaszada is against assessment as a whole. "On the whole, there is nothing to assess. We can assess different aspects and then summarize them. We issue a summarized statistical report every year. The reports on 2006 and 2007 will soon be published. But this is not the most important thing right now. The most important thing is that these reports are read and used as a guide by people responsible for the quality of education. Things will not improve if we just keep talking. We have to be able to accept information, read it and create new information. That's why we issue these reports. Our aim is not to praise or criticize anyone. Our aim is to make people understand. If we don't know the diagnosis, how can we cure the disease. And everyone knows that we are ill. It is not only our country, but all countries going through a transitional period. We provide this information, and it is open, and every member of our society can access it," the head of the State Commission said.

In conclusion, we would like to point out that at a news conference on the results of the 33rd international conference on assessing the quality of education, IAEA vice-president Yoav Cohen said that education in Azerbaijan meets international standards. "Azerbaijan's education system has undergone considerable positive changes throughout its history. The introduction of the test system of university admission exams has been especially successful. This system has totally justified itself, and the fair results of test exams can be described as evidence of young people's knowledge."