The IV International Forum on “New Challenges in Education” took place

The IV International Forum on "New Challenges in Education" was held on October 5.  Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Science and Education Matin Kerimli, MP Jeyhun Mammadov, rectors of universities, representatives of the scientific and educational community, world-renowned experts in the field of education, school principals, teachers, and other guests took part in the international forum.

Addressing the opening speech at the Forum, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Science and Education Matin Kerimli said the event was dedicated to the "Year of Heydar Aliyev", and emphasized that the national leader always paid great attention and care to education and teachers, and this policy is successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev. Matin Kerimli said that the victory achieved under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief also defines new priorities and needs for our education. At present, numerous educational institutions are being built in the territories liberated from occupation, and in the next 3 years, new schools are also planned to be built and start working in these territories.

Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Science and Education Matin Kerimli underlined that the most important directions are improvement of moral and psychological environment in schools, effective organisation of educational work and proper establishment of school-family relations. At the end of his speech, the Chief of Staff congratulated the participants on International Teacher's Day and wished them success in the work of the forum.

Rector of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University Jafar Jafarov, who hosted the forum, welcomed the guests and spoke about the necessity of applying the model of university-school co-operation. The rector said that the main goal of the university he heads is to train future teachers in accordance with the challenges of the modern world.

Ziya Selcuk, former Minister of National Education of Turkey and founder of the “Maya” School Network, gave a presentation on "From Digitalisation to Naturalness: Creating Balance in Education". Drawing the attention of forum participants to the professional development of teachers, the impact of technological innovations on the learning environment, and the importance of teacher-student relationships in general, Ziya Selcuk also gave his recommendations to the teachers participating in the forum.

Academic Director of the International Centre for Education and Innovation "XXI Century" Turan Zakariyeva in her presentation "Happy student = happy personality" touched upon such topics as the frequency of knowledge acquisition, artificial intelligence, and acquisition of executive skills at an early age.

Writer and psychologist Azra Cohen, who joined the online forum, gave a presentation called "The intelligence menu" and spoke about the importance of teaching children to learn.

Speaking afterwards, Fernando Reimers, Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative, noted the importance of teaching the Sustainable Development Goals through a number of lesson topics and emphasised the importance of students acquiring experience-based knowledge.

Andreas Schleicher, Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Education Policy and Director of Education and Skills, then gave a presentation on "The Real World’s Requirements for Education". Andreas Schleicher, who presented statistics on the results of a study on creativity and digital skills conducted among 10-15-year-old children, spoke about the importance of analytical, cognitive, and metacognitive, social-emotional skills.

The forum included answering questions from the participants.

It should be noted that the main goal of the forum was to discuss new challenges in education and review the educational requirements of the new era. The international forum was held in a hybrid format with the organisational support of the Ministry of Science and Education, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Education Development Fund, the “T-Network” experimental and communication platform for educators, the Institute of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University.