On December 16-20, 2015, the diagnostic evaluation of knowledge and skills of teachers working at general educational institutions of Sumgait city, Absheron and Gubadly regions was held. The diagnostic evaluation, attended by nearly 9,000 teachers, was held at Sumgait Olympic Sports Complex. 99.04% of teachers, who were invited from the above-mentioned regions, participated in the examinations. Immediately after the examinations were over, the results of the diagnostic evaluation were announced. The teachers may enter their Personal Pages on the official website (www.dq.edu.az) of the Ministry of Education created in connection with the diagnostic evaluation of knowledge and skills of teachers and may get acquainted with results. During the evaluation process, 40 test questions in the specialty according to general education program, 20 test questions in methods and learning strategies were submitted to participants. According to the relevant rules, each correct answer is estimated by 1 point. The knowledge and skills of the teachers, who correctly answered at least 10 percent of test questions in each section, are considered diagnostically evaluated. The diagnostic evaluation was attended by teachers, who work under labor agreement in secondary schools, included in the system of the Ministry of Education, as their principal place of work, as well as resource teachers and heads of pre-conscription military training of youth. The next diagnostic evaluation will be held at full secondary school No. 12 of Ganja city on December 24-26. The knowledge and skills of more than 3,500 teachers working at general education institutions of Ganja city will be diagnostically evaluated in the examinations.

23/12/2015 14:45

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed the partnership agreement with the IP and Science division of Thomson Reuters, the leading global supplier of analytical information for businesses and professionals. According to the agreement, Azerbaijani high education institutions will get full access to data from Thomson Reuters Web of Science®, the world’s most trusted citation index for leading scholarly literature, namely to the Science Citation Index Expanded®, Social Sciences Citation Index®, Arts & Humanities Citation Index®, Conference Proceedings Citation Index® (CPCI), and to Thomson Reuters InCites™, the company’s flagship, web-based research evaluation tool that allows users to analyze the productivity of scientific and educational institutions all over the world. Web of Science and InCites are currently used by over 7,000 premier universities, research institutions, government agencies, and business organizations from around the world.  Web of Science® data analysis will help scientific and educational institutions determine the most promising areas of research, and build effective development strategies. According to Mikayil Jabbarov, the Minister of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, "This partnership is designed to support the concept of development of our country, which is based on the idea of “converting black gold to human capital”. We are confident that this cooperation will bring the scientific activities in our country to entirely new level of development."  President of Azerbaijan National Academy of Science Akif Alizadeh emphasized significance of access opportunities for high education institutions to the Web of Science® global scientific platform and İnCites™ tool and stressed the importance of this document for the Azerbaijani science. The project will be implemented in cooperation with Science Development Foundation under the President of Azerbaijan, which supports the research activities of Azerbaijani scientists as one of the priorities for the Foundation. We are happy to cooperate with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, hereby promoting the development of research and education institutions in Azerbaijan. We are confident that wide access to the leading global scientometric platform of Thomson Reuters will help increase the number of publications of local researchers, provide a powerful impetus for development of science in Azerbaijan, and will also promote international cooperation," said Sameeh S. El-Din, President of Thomson Reuters for Government Projects in Developing Markets. The Science Citation Index Expanded provides researchers, administrators, faculty, and students with quick, powerful access to the bibliographic and citation information they need to find research data, analyze trends, journals and researchers, and share their findings. Moreover, the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index give access to a full list of research papers and bibliographic and citation information from the latest issues of scientific publications in social sciences and arts & humanities, essential for data mining and analyzing the trends. Furthermore, the Conference Proceedings Citation Index helps researchers access the published literature from the most significant conferences and conventions since 1990, selecting from the vast volume of journal literature only the publications that will present most interest to the widest circle of researchers and scholars worldwide. Azerbaijani higher education institutions will also get access to the Journal Citation Report (JCR) on the InCites information platform. Journal Citation Reports allow scholars to compare influence of various scientific journals, and choose the most appropriate journals for their own publications

22/12/2015 17:44

On December 16, the Republican scientific conference on the theme "Strategic targets of education and tasks facing pedagogical sciences in Azerbaijan" was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Educational Problems (IEP).   First of all, the event participants familiarized themselves with the book exhibition. Opening the conference Gulu Novruzov, Director of IEP, spoke about the importance of the event and underlined that the main purpose was to prepare concrete proposals for implementing the issues of the identification of responsibilities of pedagogical sciences and the creation of new competency-based and results-oriented educational content in the country in accordance with the State Strategy. Firudin Gurbanov, Deputy Minister of Education, spoke about the existing problems in the field of education and the work to be done to eliminate them. The Deputy Minister made recommendations related to the organization of the teaching process. During the conference, Bakhtiyar Aliyev, Member of the Milli Majlis, Yusif Mammadov, Rector of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, Oktay Samadov, Executive Director of Knowledge Foundation under the President of Azerbaijan Republic, spoke about education reforms carried out in the country and emphasized the importance of solving existing problems in this field.

22/12/2015 12:31

Within the framework of the "State Program on Education of Azerbaijani Youth Abroad in the years 2007-2015”, the final statistics on admission for the year 2015 has been announced. Within the framework of the State Program, the student selection process on admission for the academic year 2015-2016 - the last year of admission and on the State Program has been completed. The names of 373 students have been included in the list of scholarship holders in the last year of admission which was completed successfully according to the State Program. So, post-baccalaureate education levels have dominated in this year's competition. 176 persons have gained the right to study at a master's degree level, 25 persons at a doctor's degree level, 70 persons at a residency degree level, 102 persons at a basic higher medical education level and a bachelor's degree level. The main objectives of the "State Program on Education of Azerbaijani Youth Abroad in the years 2007-2015”, prepared on the personal initiative of the President of Azerbaijan Republic Mr. Ilham Aliyev and approved by a decree of the President dated April 16, 2007, are to build a competitive economic system in the country and to meet the country's need for personnel, who meet modern requirements, in terms of ensuring sustainable development, to create the necessary conditions for Azerbaijani youth to get a decent higher education, to provide increasing the efficiency and good organization of the process of expanding opportunities for talented young people to study in the advanced countries of the world. In order to implement the above-mentioned goals, during 9 years of implementation of the State Program, the relevant legal framework was created and it was further improved on the basis of issues that emerged during the period of implementation, the opportunities were created for candidates to submit documents electronically, individual interviews were conducted for them and the reforms were carried out to improve the quality of learning environment for students. The selection process was conducted with the participation of specialists from the Ministry of Education, relevant government agencies and higher education institutions in order to create the conditions for young people to get education in specialties, that are considered a priority for our country, in the world's leading higher education institutions within the framework of the State Program and a total of 3558 people gained the right to study. Great Britain, Turkey, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands became the top 5 countries where most students choose to study. As a result of the selection process, more students won the right to study at a master`s degree level. Within the framework of the State Program, Azerbaijani students are studying at prestigious higher education institutions such as Harvard University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Imperial College London, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Middle East Technical University, University of Toronto, Nanyang Technological University and Kyoto University. So far, 1147 people have registered as a graduate within the framework of the State Program. 60 percent of graduates, who completed their education with higher academic performance, operate in the private sector and 40% of them operate in the public sector. Admission of students, who studied within the framework of the State Program, to the interview stage of civil service entrance exams created great conditions for the use of the acquired knowledge and competency in public administration. It should be noted that the last person, who is studying (the residency level of medical education) within the framework of the State Program, is expected to be graduated in 2021. The measures taken and the results achieved during the implementation of the State Program give an impetus to the work done in the direction of "The transformation of black gold into human capital", which is considered one of the main priorities.

22/12/2015 12:29

"International Erasmus + Information Day" was held at Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry. The event was attended by Sulhaddin Gozalov, head of the Department of Science and Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Rafig Jamalov, Vice-rector of international relations at Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry, Toras Plis, representative of the European Union, Carolina Karboliskayt, representative of the European Commission's Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency, Parviz Bagirov, head of the office of "International Erasmus +" in Azerbaijan, Reza Talabi Daryani, professor of Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Tofig Babayev, Regional Innovative Technologies Academy, as well as representatives of higher education institutions. During the event, the participants were informed about internship programs implemented in higher education institutions. It was noted that the relationship between higher education institutions of Azerbaijan and European universities expanded on the basis of the projects implemented within the framework of the relevant programs. It should be noted that European projects play a major role in giving a great impetus to the integration of Azerbaijan's higher education system into international and European educational arena. We will have the opportunity to participate more actively within the framework of the new program "Erasmus+", replacing the Tempus program on the basis of the experience gained by higher education institutions. Under the program, three projects are potentially funded in the first competition with the participation of universities.  

22/12/2015 12:27

According to the order, 2015-2016 academic year fall semester examinations will be organized in higher educational institutions in accordance with the existing rules and the appropriate measures will be taken in order to ensure transparency and objectivity in the assessment of students' knowledge.   The Order of the Minister of Education of Azerbaijan Republic on "The organization and conduction of examinations"  

22/12/2015 12:25

On December 16, the diagnostic evaluation of knowledge and skills of teachers working at general educational institutions of Sumgait city, Absheron and Gubadly regions has begun in Sumgait city. The examinations are held at Sumgait Olympic Sports Complex. Nearly 9,000 teachers are expected to participate in the examinations. During the evaluation process, 40 test questions in the specialty according to general education program, 20 test questions in methods and learning strategies are submitted to participants. The diagnostic evaluation, held in Sumgait city on December 16-20, will be attended by teachers, who work under labor agreement in secondary schools, included in the system of the Ministry of Education, as their principal place of work, as well as resource teachers and heads of pre-conscription military training of youth. Immediately after the examinations have been taken, the results of the diagnostic evaluation are announced. The teachers may enter their Personal Pages on the official website (www.dq.edu.az) of the Ministry of Education created in connection with the diagnostic evaluation of knowledge and skills of teachers and may get acquainted with results. It should be noted that the purpose of the diagnostic evaluation is to determine the level of knowledge and skills of teachers, to improve the material well-being by increasing the norm for their teaching loads and salaries, to involve them in growth-oriented trainings on the basis of the result of the evaluation.

21/12/2015 09:23

Sabail District Basketball Championship was held within the frameworks of the program "Olympic Movement". The program "Olympic Movement" is jointly carried out by the International Olympic Committee and the "Coca-Cola" company - the Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games, the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The main objective of the program is to continue the social and sporting legacy of Baku 2015 First European Games. The program is also intended for involving schoolchildren in school and city competitions to be held in track and field athletics, cycling, basketball (3x3), and badminton, as well as for instilling a healthy and active lifestyle, the Olympic values in pupils. Competitions were held in secondary school No.189-190 in Baku. The district championship was attended by 14 out of 16 teams. In the competition, held in a tense struggle, the team of the educational complex no. 132-134 subordinated to the Ministry of Education won the first place, the team of Technical-Humanitarian Lyceum No.2 named after H.Mahmudbayov won the second place, the team of secondary school No. 91 of Baku city won the third place and they got the right to take part in the final stage. Diplomas were presented to the winners and the participants by the organizers.

18/12/2015 17:34

The presentation of the project “Skills for business world” was held on December 15. The project is jointly carried out by the Ministry of Education, the British Council and "Azercell Telecom" LLC in the field of initial vocational and specialized education. The main objective of the project is to contribute to the development of initial vocational and specialized education and training in the country, to expand employment opportunities and to organize work experience program. The representatives of the Ministry of Education, the British Council, "Azercell Telecom" LLC and pilot institutions of initial vocational and specialized education attended the presentation of the project. The first training on the project is held at Baku Professional Lyceum No.5. The training is attended by 36 teachers teaching ICT and telecommunications in initial vocational and specialized educational institutions in Baku. During the training, the participants will be able to gain knowledge and skills about effective learning models for initial vocational and specialized education, methods and classroom management. Lessons will be continued until December 17 by a specialist invited from the United Kingdom. The part, intended for pupils, will be implemented by the Organization on Achievements of Azerbaijani Youth. To this end, the skills of more than 500 pupils studying ICT and telecommunications were examined by the Organization and 120 pupils were given a chance to participate in the training. During the project, these pupils will acquire skills for finding work and career opportunities, and will gain production experience in the field of ICT and telecommunications. The trainings for pupils will begin since January 2016.

18/12/2015 16:47

The first forum of Azerbaijani student volunteers was held on December 14. The Forum began with listening to the National Anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Then, the video, entitled "Azerbaijani Volunteers: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" about volunteer activities among students, was shown. The Forum, held with the support of the Ministry of Education, was attended by Fatma Abdullazadeh, head of the Department of Humanitarian Policy Issues of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Education, Azad Rahimov, Minister of Youth and Sports, MPs, rectors of higher education institutions, representatives of international organizations, NGO leaders, student volunteers and media representatives. Welcoming the participants of the forum, Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Education, said that this event was of great historical importance. The Minister of Education noted that obligations arising from youth policy founded by national leader Heydar Aliyev were one of the priorities for the activities of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev. Noting that the President highly appreciates volunteer activities of students in the international events held in Azerbaijan, Minister mentioned that the head of state paid special importance to these issues during a meeting with volunteers. As it was noted by Mr. President, "Volunteers one again showed that our country has a great potential and human capital... Indeed, our future is in safe hands". Touching upon the special role of student volunteers in the process of holding the Baku 2015 First European Games at a high level, Minister of Education noted that the thoughts of Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan, Chairperson of the First European Games Organizing Committee, generated enthusiasm in student volunteers. The Minister also underlined that the reforms, implemented in the field of higher education, the favorable environment, created for students, provided new opportunities for learners. It is scheduled to further expand the innovative environment in higher education institutions in the near future within the framework of international projects. Noting that it is necessary to respond adequately to new challenges, the Minister highly appreciated the creation of student-volunteer program “BIR” in order to make more effective use of power and knowledge of students and to successfully implement the strategic objectives. Fatma Abdullazadeh, head of the Department of Humanitarian Policy Issues of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, gave recommendations to student volunteers and wished success to the forum. Noting that volunteers serve as an example for other young people by taking an active part in social and cultural life of our country and higher education institutions where they study, the head of the Department emphasized the importance of working hard to be ready for new challenges. In their speeches, Azad Rahimov, Minister of Youth and Sports, Nato Alkazashvili, Deputy Resident Coordinator of the United Nations, and student volunteers spoke about the importance of the forum and noted that the volunteer movement had a positive impact on the expansion of activeness of citizens in the society. After the speeches were delivered, the presentation of student-volunteer program “BIR” was held. During the presentation, the participants were informed in detail about the purpose, directions and opportunities of the program. It should be noted that the program covers 10 higher education institutions in Baku, Sumgait and Ganja as a pilot project. Under the program, students will be involved in volunteer activities and relevant events, as well as the project, which includes 6 different directions (Learn, Teach, Live, Keep alive, Discover and Enjoy) according to "real student life" model, will be submitted to them. Young people can apply through www.facebook.com/birkonullu to join the program. The event ended with the singing of Azerbaijan`s famous retro song “Student” by the students.

18/12/2015 16:45