SCHOOL REFORM

In the recent period, we often hear officials talking about "reform". Experience shows that this is not just idle talk. Indeed, you cannot surprise anyone with various innovations, especially socially-oriented ones, introduced by various ministries and departments, i.e. by organizations that work directly with the population. Some reforms are welcomed by the country's population, while others cause disputes in society.

The 15 September marks a remarkable date, and it has already started. For several years already, a new school year in our country has been starting in the middle of the first month of autumn, not on 1 September as was the case before. But from year to year, the beginning of the new school year, which is supposed to make children happy, becomes a new test for children and their parents. Reforms in the system of secondary education are in full swing, and perhaps, the new 2007/08 school year will stick in our mind by the number of innovations.

School dress code

In the run-up to the new school year, Azerbaijani Minister of Education Misir Mardanov signed Decree No 953 "On the introduction of a single school uniform". According to Article 48 of the law "On education" and Point 58 of the statute on schools approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Education decided to introduce a single school uniform in all schools of Azerbaijan. The law also says that the administration of schools, teachers, parental committees and the staff of the education system should explain this issue to the public. According to the minister, since Azerbaijan gained its independence, there have been various opinions regarding the need for the school uniform. This issue has been discussed for a long time.

"The public and the ministry had different opinions. But soon the Ministry of Education decided to introduce uniforms in schools. Perhaps, this is was a requirement of time. However, for most of our schools, the introduction of the school uniform will be no surprise. Although there have not been any documents that oblige schools to introduce a single uniform, many school in the country have always had certain requirements regarding attire," the minister said while commenting on this decision.

Incidentally, he also announced the price of the school uniform. According to the education minister, it will cost from 30 to 50 manats. We have to say that these figures shocked whole families, especially the families whose minimum subsistence level leaves something to be desired. And it is no surprise. For example, families that have two or three pupils, not to mention families with many children, will have to splash out a lot of money on the school uniform. What is more, apart from the school uniform, a child needs pens, pencils, textbooks, tracksuits, rucksacks or briefcases and so on. Parents who buy the necessary school "equipment" for their kids before 15 September assert that the cost of a "school basket" in the cheapest shops of Baku is about 60 manats.

The population and the ministry have different views regarding the need for a single school uniform. The Ministry of Education has decided to introduce a single school uniform to ensure a democratic, healthy and moral-psychological atmosphere in secondary schools and to form a feeling of social equality among pupils. However, many parents are sure that this will not prevent social stratification at schools. Sahla Mammadova, a mother of two who lives in Baku, thinks that even if children wear the same uniforms, children from rich families will stand out. "Attributes of rich life will betray children from wealthy families anyway. No-one is going to cancel mobile telephones, expensive school accessories and cars which will bring these children to school, which is why I see no need to introduce a school uniform," she said.

However, the head of the ministry's general education department, Arif Muradov, does not think so. In his opinion, the school uniform develops children. "This innovation will make it possible to smooth out social differences between children and make them more disciplined. What is more, the school uniform will make pupils more responsible for their classes," Muradov said.

According to our interviewee, there will be a gradual switch to the school uniform, but at the same time, no-one is going to introduce a common standard outfit for all schoolchildren of the country. The main requirements regarding the school uniform are the usual white shirt and dark trousers. Muradov said that school uniforms will be mandatory for pupils of primary schools this year and for all pupils of secondary schools next year. It is interesting that the ministry will authorize school principals themselves to choose the style and cloth of the school uniform. Specialists in hygiene and epidemiology, psychologists and many other experts should be engaged in developing clothes for children and teenagers. It is not clear yet how schools will overcome this task independently. However, the Ministry of Education says that there is still enough time, which is why no school has the right to force parents to buy uniforms this year, because the final decision on this issue will take effect in the next school year.

The chairman of the league to protect children's rights, Yusif Bakirov, is sure that the introduction of the school uniform will only create additional financial problems for parents. In his opinion, this innovation should have been discussed by society first, because it affects the interests of 1.6 million pupils.

Bakirov asserts that the price of two sets of the uniform will be especially high for rural residents. Since the school uniform does not replace everyday clothes, parents will be forced to find money to buy extra clothes, the head of the league says.

In any case, there is a decision to change clothes not only on children, but also on teachers. For example, the Baku education department believes that female teachers should not come to school in trousers. This was even discussed by the department, and it was recommended that school principals oversee what their teachers wear when they come to school. The deputy head of the department, Zamina Aliqizi, said that this issue will be discussed by the Ministry of Education soon. She also pointed out that this will apply only to Baku schools.

This proposal was also supported by rights champions. Provocative clothes, including tight trousers, have a negative impact on the upbringing and education of pupils, said Sadaqat Pasayeva, a rights champion from the society to protect Azerbaijani women's rights. "Smart clothes, makeup and haircuts distract children's attention from their studies, which is why restrictions should be imposed," she said.

Educational perturbations 

It seems that the innovations in the sphere of general education will not be limited only to changes in the appearance of pupils and teachers. It has become known that the ABC book will no longer be used in secondary schools in the 2008/09 school year, the head of the Education Ministry's department of textbooks and publication, Faiq Sahbazli, said. He said that in connection with the introduction of the national curriculum, a decision has been made to replace the ABC book with a new Azerbaijani language textbook in the 2008/09 school year. It will include material from the ABC book and texts for reading. These subjects were taught separately before. A tender has been announced to prepare the new textbook. In May next year, it is planned to appraise this textbook and hand it over to pupils in the next school year.

Another interesting innovation in the new school year will be a new system of performance appraisal. Minister of Education Misir Mardanov said that the system of daily performance appraisal will be repealed. But this is not everything.

Among other educational innovations of this year, we would like to focus on new subjects in junior and senior forms of secondary schools. For example, beginning from the new school year a new subject called "computer science and foundations of life" will be taught in junior grades and "pre-conscription training" in senior grades. Incidentally, along with the personnel of the Ministry of Education, employees of the Emergencies Ministry also took part in developing the curriculum of the latter subject.

In connection with the introduction of "pre-conscription training", we wonder whether "basic military training" will be abolished, and what is the difference between them?

Sahbazli told us that the new subject will be completely different from "basic military training" and will reflect the realities of present-day Azerbaijan. This subject will be taught in the 10-11th grades. It is not known yet how different it will be. Will it become another subject that is just a formality? It is clear that since our country has been in a state of undeclared war for many years, the growing generation needs to have elementary military knowledge. On the other hand, it would be an exaggeration to say that the same "basic military training" provided useful information on this issue and helped foster military habits.

In the past, "basic military training" played quite a significant role in the military education of young people, but that time has long become a thing of the past. It included military drills, handling of a submachine-gun and the foundations of medical aid. Moreover, exercises that lasted several days were held from time to time to enable pupils to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. The position of such education was quite simple - boys learnt to shoot and girls to render aid to those wounded in fighting.

Now everything is different, and many schools do not even have dummy submachine-guns and hand grenades, not to mention training weapons, i.e. there is no logistic base that is necessary for teaching "basic military training". At best, you will see old dusty posters showing weapons on the walls. Such lessons are quite tedious, and what children think about is not acquiring knowledge, but killing their time till the end of the lesson. Sometimes they even play truant as they think this lesson is not necessary. 

Many senior pupils say that "basic military training" should give them practical habits of military service instead of being limited to theory and demonstration of posters. Others say that there is no need for this subject at school and that it can only be taught as an optional subject.

There were rumours last year that "basic military training" would be cancelled at schools. Minister of Education Misir Mardanov denied this information then, admitting that the teaching of this subject was far from being at the appropriate level in Azerbaijan. Then the Ministry of Emergencies and the Ministry of Education signed an agreement on joint cooperation under which a special programme was drawn up. The result of this work is known - a new subject that will take over from "basic military training", but only time will show how viable it is.

It is no secret that the teaching of a great number of subjects in Azerbaijani schools is still just a formality. This allows us to question the need for them in the school curriculum. For example, in Western countries, schoolchildren can choose this or that subject - of course, this does not apply to mandatory subjects such as mathematics, foreign language and so on.

Mandatory lessons are not always so productive. For example, if a child has no talent for painting, he will not become a great painter no matter how hard he works to paint a landscape or still life. Or at singing lessons, every child is forced to sing a song in front of his classmates. For someone, it might be a pleasure because they already see themselves on the stage with a microphone. But for somebody else, it is a real torture because they know very well that they are not good at singing.

Many express a good idea that such lessons should be optional, and children would choose the subject they like. Otherwise, they are just wasting their time and energy without getting any specific results and moral satisfaction from their lessons.

Permanent problems

The country's education system still has a sufficient number of "weak spots", and sometimes it is not clear where we should start reforming this segment. The low level of teachers' professionalism, the lack of teachers in a number of regions of the country and problems with pupils - this is an incomplete list of "educational" problems in our country.

For example, 23 secondary schools in Sahbuz District of the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic need 74 teachers for the 1-11th forms in the 2007/08 school year, the district education department has said. There is an urgent need for "basic military training" teachers - 20 teachers are needed. A secondary school in the village of Sada on the Armenian border needs 11 teachers. A school for 88 pupils is already under construction in this mountain village. At the same time, the government has already started giving financial incentives to specialists who agree to work in distant parts of the country. The education minister said that it is planned to send 1,308 young specialists to regions of the country this year.

At the same time, there are still problems such as the refurbishment of buildings, the updating of the material-technical base in schools and the installation of heating systems. For example, about 1,000 secondary schools are unsafe today and need refurbishment, and the construction of new buildings and the refurbishment of old ones requires 2-2.2 billion manats. 75-80 schools are in a very poor state. These are mostly schools placed in buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s. They were initially built as warehouses, the deputy head of the economic department of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Education, Orxan Karimov, said.

He said that the ministry has prepared a draft state programme on the refurbishment and construction of new buildings and schools in 2008-12, which is being examined by the government right now. It is expected that the president will approve the programme in the near future. "Its implementation will make it possible to solve the problem of unsafe schools," the representative of the Ministry of Education said confidently.

At the same time, we have to observe that about 1,000 have been built or refurbished with funding from the state, foundations and foreign companies in Azerbaijan in recent years. These schools have modern equipment and a material-technical base in line with international standards. Karimov said that the decree of the president of the Azerbaijan Republic "On the construction of new buildings for unsafe secondary schools and the refurbishment of a number of schools" will cover 21 schools.

In order to speed up the construction of new schools and complete the refurbishment of others in 2007, the Ministry of Education will be given 14 million manats from the president's reserve fund. The list includes schools in Ucar, Calilabad, Qobustan, Samaxi, Kurdamir, Qusar and Salyan districts and in Baku, which should be refurbished in a short time. Moreover, it is also planned to build new schools in these districts.

So the school year has already begun, and teachers, parents and pupils can only hope that in the near future, the country's Ministry of Education will not just shock them with a new portion of reforms, but will also seriously deal with "old" problems that the country's education system has been facing for many years.