Having welcomed attendees Education Minister congratulated 28 teachers (10 primary school, 10 math, and eight Azerbaijani language and literature teachers) on passing to the next level of the competition, and wished every success to them.  The Minister underlined the Best General Secondary School and Best Teacher competitions, which conducted in accordance with the presidential order signed in 2007, have been held for four years demonstrate the attention and care of the Azerbaijani government to the education and educators. He informed that in the current year 425 teachers have participated in the competition and 217 of them passed to the next level. The majority of teachers are primary school (57 people) and English language (35) teachers.    According to the Minister in comparison with past years, this year there was established just one Commission per subject. He estimated this as a very useful method for objective chose of teachers, and expressed assurance that Expert Commission will be impartial in its estimation and will assess participants in accordance with the results of collective discussion.      Further, the Minister noted the relevant timetable for attending the teacher’s classes was prepared, and participants will be invited to the Ministry the day before of test lessons to become acquainted with conditions of schools where the test lessons will be organized. He also gave information on the procedure for the definition of the theme of lessons. Furthermore, he noted the lessons will be assessed on 12 criterions, and one teacher will be allowed taking part in the lesson of other. The Minister added that all lessons will be filmed, and the commission’s decision will announce after analysis of the lesson. According to the Minister, participants who will dissatisfy with the commission’s decision may address a written request to the Ministry within three days.   The Minister noted that after this level will complete each teacher will give a 10 minute presentation at the Ministry about the main directions of its activity, success, educational problems its offers. The final score of the teachers will be defined by adding total scores gained by them in each level. At the end there were answered to questions of teachers and was held a discussion on other issues connected with the competition.

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On February 14, was held a meeting with the experts who will estimate lessons of the Best Teacher Competition participants. Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Education Minister Misir Mardanov said that the successful completion of the Best Teacher competition will depend on the activity of Commissions consist of experts. Therefore, they should demonstrate a high responsibility and objectiveness. Noting there will be acted just one Commission per subject, the Minister informed that the representative of the Ministry will be presented at the commission as an observer, and they will solve organizational issues. The Minister informed that the timetable of test lessons of the teachers was prepared and schools that will conduct the lessons defined. He noted lessons of 57 primary school teachers will be attended in six levels, 35 English teacher lessons - 4 and 25 Azerbaijani language and literature teachers – three levels from February 15. Moreover, lessons of other subject teachers will be attended until April 21.   Further, the Minister noted 425 teachers took part in the competition and according to the results of examination 217 of them have passed to the next level. The test lessons will be conducted at the Heydar Aliyev Lyceum subordinated to the Ministry of Education, Taraggi Lyceum, Elitar Gymnasium, at the educational complex No. 132-134, at schools of Baku No. 1, 7, 8, 20, 23, 27, 36, 45, 46, 47, 56, 160, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 258, 291 and Kindergarten-School-Lyceum Complex. The Minister gave relevant tasks to the directors of the mentioned schools to implement the appropriate organizational works. He also noted there no changes were made in the assessment criterions, and each criterion will be assessed by maximum 10 scores.   At the end he gave his tasks and advices to the experts and noted the importance for keeping the impartiality and equitableness during the estimation. 

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The meeting was attended by deputy ministers, heads of relevant departments of the Ministry, directors of higher and secondary educational institutions, vocational and secondary schools, district and city departments of education, and representatives of non governmental organizations. Speaking at the meeting Education Minister Misir Mardanov noted at the meeting of Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Republic devoted to the results of 2010, which was held under the chairmanship of Mr. President Ilham Aliyev, was discussed the corruption, and in this regard serious duties were raised before the state bodies. Stressing that the fight against corruption is one of the key priorities of the state policy of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Minister underlined the importance of legal documents adopted in this field in recent years. He also spoke about the activities jointly carried out with relevant bodies. Misir Mardanov noted works done within the National Strategy. According to him, since 2006 Working Group of the Ministry against corruption, which is consisting of representatives of NGO’s and Hot Line Service, has operated at the Ministry. He informed that in 2010, the Ministry received 51.552 letters, appeals, petitions and complaints from citizens and government bodies, as well as accepted 7.251 people. The Minister talked about statistical indicators for the number and topic of applications and complaints of citizens, and stressed the monitoring should be held in the regions to find out the situation related to the corruption. Stating that at the end of each year, reports of the central apparatus and departments of the Ministry are being considered, the Minister said that district and city departments of education, higher and secondary educational institutions should be involved in this process as well. He informed about application of the activity assessment system of the workers of the Ministry and district and city departments of education since 2008, and standards of ethical behavior were prepared and presented to all educational institutions. Moreover, the admission of teachers to work based on transparency and competition was received with satisfaction. The Minister informed that 288 teachers out of 1.815 who took part in the exams conducted by the computer to fill vacancies in secondary schools across the country for 2010-2011 school years were provided with work. Furthermore, there was created a new mechanism for the admission of directors to work.   The Minister noted the importance of improving the mechanism for conducting exams at educational institutions, increasing transparency and public control over the process. According to him, Hotline's service should be established at each educational institution. He informed that at all educational institutions were established Hotline Service to ensure the transparency of the exams. Moreover, Media, NGO, representatives of Foundation to Fight against Corruption, Transparency Azerbaijan Society, Center for Modern Education and Training Support, National Building Research Centre was involved in the exam process. The minister also said that in recent years exams were conducted in writing form and via the computer to prevent negative cases and ensure objectivity and transparency of the process. Talking on the cancellation of licenses of Baku branch of Moscow State Open University and Azerbaijan International University last year, Mr. Mardanov informed that students of these schools were transferred to other private universities. According to Minister the Ministry implemented regular works to identify negative cases, violations of law, and took disciplinary measures against responsible persons committed the violation. The Minister noted that last year 108 people, including 4 heads of district education departments, 72 principals, five deputy directors, one director of out-of-school institutions, six directors of professional schools, one university teacher, 10 directors of kindergartens, nine chief accountants were fired. Moreover, 41 people received the final warning, and 115 get a reprimand. Further, the minister spoke about the future responsibilities, noted the importance of improving the quality of education, protecting teachers and schools’ reputation.

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789 queries were received by telephone, 121 through an e-mail. All of them were investigated and responded. A majority of queries were connected with the admission of teachers to work, conducting the final exams in the IX and XI grades, organization of education for disabled children, benefits granted to the winners of International Olympiads, study abroad, recognition of educational documents, and etc.  9.6 per cent of queries were complaints. They were connected with pre-school, general, vocational and higher school problems. Complaints connected with schools were received from Baku (15), Naftalan (2) and Ganja (1) cities, Absheron (16), Jalilabad (3), Zagatala (2), Yevlakh (2), Goygol (2), Lerik (2), Sheki (1), Masalli (1), Yardimli (1), Agdash (1), Balaken (1), Saatli (1) districts. A vast majority of them were connected with problems such as lack of central heating at schools, collection of money for technical equipments of school, organization of different publication’s sale, and, etc. Queries received from Absheron were connected with the organization of uniforms’ sale. There were received two queries from vocational schools (Baku Vocational Lyceum No.2, and Ismailli Vocational Lyceum).    The inquiries received by the Service connected with the execution of Order of the Minister on Organization and Conduction of the winter exam session of 2010-2011 academic year at higher and secondary professional education establishments, were promptly considered. More than 100 queries received by the Service from these establishments were inquiring. 35 queries received from state (21), private (10) and secondary professional educational establishments (4) were about shortcomings. Queries received from universities were connected with the organization of term exams by test method, application of Bologna system, master education, tuition fee, and, etc. Students of Baku State University, Azerbaijan State Economic University, Azerbaijan Medical University, Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University, Azerbaijan Technical University, Azerbaijan University of Languages, Sumgayit State University and other universities mostly complain about their assessment. Representatives of the Ministry jointly with the officials of the mentioned universities have investigated queries. 10 queries received from the private universities were about Baku Business University, Gafgaz University, and Azerbaijan International University, which activity was stopped. They were about a violation of procedures for the conduct of examinations, not granting the diploma to alumni, and, etc. All requests were investigated and responded.    Queries received from secondary professional institutions (Baku State Social-Economy College, Baku State Communication and Transport College, Agjabedi Pedagogical and Shirvan State Economic and Humanitarian College) were mainly connected with exam’s assessment. All queries were examined and their authors were informed about its result.

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Shortly the results of centralized test exams on the general secondary education level (IX grade) will be posted in this section. It should be noted that on February 12-13 in Baku were held centralized test exams on the general and complete secondary education level of 2010-2011 academic year. 26,730 students of classes XI passed the examinations in 72 centers, and 36,085 students of classes IX in 74 centers. Refugee pupils living in the city of Baku also took part in examinations held on February 12-13. Examination for students of XI grades lasted three hours, and for IX grades half an hour. There were applied a number of innovations at the test exams conducted in 2010-2011 academic year. Thus, the number of questions per subject was changed. The total number of questions on the Mother tongue and literature subject has been reduced from 25 to 21, on natural sciences was increased from  10 to 12. In addition, pupils was given a special pass sheet of the Ministry. Representatives of PTA as observers watched the exam at 67 centres of Baku. It should be noted that 137.523 pupils out of 236710 are pupils of IX grades, 94417 pupils in IX grades and 4770 pupils of vocational lyceums will take part in the centralised test and final exams in 2010-2011 academic year.  Test exams at other regions of the country will start on February 20.

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Having warmly welcomed the guest Education Minister talked about bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands, as well as prospect of expanding collaboration in the education field within these relations. The Minister noted the importance of various meetings, symposiums, scientists exchange to develop the cooperation in the education field, and underlined that the Embassy of the Netherlands could make contribution to this work.     The Ambassador has thanked the Minister for the warm reception and underlined the Kingdom of Netherlands attaches a great importance to the educational ties with Azerbaijan. Noting that his country extensively developed areas such as medicine, agriculture and business management, he made a proposal for cooperation in this field. The Ambassador emphasized the desirability of cooperation between universities of two countries in the research area and spoke about the work done by the Netherlands for the efective use of ICT in education. At the meeting, the sides talked about participation of the Netherlands in international exhibitions held in Azerbaijan in the education area, organization of mutual visits, and expressed belief in further strengthening bilateral relations.

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The event to open the course was attended by the representatives of British Council, management of Agcabedi district Education Department, director of school No.8 and other educators. The goal of the training course was to impart to teachers and pupils skills to use the websites of British Council www.teachingenglish.org.uk, www.learnenglish.org.uk and teach it by using samples. Books in English sent by the Embassy of Great Britain to Azerbaijan were presented to teachers. They will use these books to assist other teachers to derive advantage from books and relevant internet resources. Further, teachers will prepare interactive lesson samples. According to the results of the survey, the course was highly estimated by participants, and they expressed hope for the regular conduction of such courses. At the end teachers and pupils attended the course were given certificates.

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Speaking at the meeting chairpersons of the commission A. Babayev (Baku Business University), E. Huseynova (Azerbaijan National Conservatory) and B. Nasirov (Sheki Pedagogical College) noted the organization of training at these educational establishments based on academic programs and its adequacy to the demands of State Educational Standards have been analysed. Moreover, the knowledge level of last course students was checked to identify the quality of training. Chairpersons gave information on results of analysed reports and number of teaching staff. Furthermore, there were noted the highest and lowest quality indicators at the educational institutions, as well as recommendations and offers of the commission.    At the end, it was decided to accredit six specialties at the Baku Business University, 7 at Azerbaijan National Conservatory and 3 at Sheki Pedagogical College.    Further, there were held an exchange of views on discussed issues and answered to questions of attendees. 

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Speaking at the opening Sayavush Karimi, rector of the Azerbaijan National Conservatory, informed that the first Mugham contest was held in 2009. According to him, 18 out of 40 singers of 18-35 year olds presented documents to take part in the contest have gained the right to participate in the contest. Sevda Mammadaliyeva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, talked about works done to develop the art of Mugham in the Republic, as well as implemented projects. She noted the special role of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in the proclaiming the Mugham of Azerbaijan a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Speaking at the ceremony Deputy Education Minister Elmar Gasimov characterized holding the II Republican Mugham Contest, which is conducted by the initiative of Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO, MP, and organized by Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Education Ministry, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Azerbaijan National Conservatory, as a state care for popularizing Azerbaijani Mugham. He expressed assurance that talented youth will be revealed due to the contest. Mr. Gasimov noted the Azerbaijani Mugham becomes very famous in the world due to the appropriate projects implemented in recent years, and the contest contributes to the passing Mugham to the future generation. It was noted that three singers elected by the Jury, which consists of famous musicians, will represent our country at the II International Mugham Festival.

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The event was attended by representatives of British Council, management of Lenkeran City Education Department, director of school No. 6, and other educators. The goal of the training was to impart to teachers of English skills to use the websites of British Council www.teachingenglish.org.uk and www.learnenglish.org.uk, as well as teach it by using samples. Teachers were presented English books sent by the Embassy of Great Britain to Azerbaijan. They will use these books to assist other teachers to derive advantage from books and relevant internet resources. Moreover, they will prepare interactive lesson samples. According to the results of the questionnaires attendees highly appreciated the training and expressed their desire for the regular conduction of such training. At the end teachers and pupils attended the training were given certificates. The next English language training will be held in Barda on March 5.

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