Azerbaijan, Baku, 21 June / Trend E. Mehtiev /
Education in Azerbaijan should be brought in line with European and international standards, Azerbaijan's Education Minister Mikail Jabbarov said during discussions with regards to national consultations on sustainable development goals for the period after 2015.
The Minister noted that the funds allocated to the education sector in Azerbaijan have increased five-fold in comparison with 2003, reaching 1.5 billion manat.
"The second of the eight development goals is to achieve general and compulsory primary education. As a result of targeted measures conducted in the past, significant progress has been achieved in terms of the level of education of the population aged 15 to 24, net enrollment ratio in primary education, primary school completion rate and proportion of students finishing five years of education. Thus, Azerbaijan has achieved the Millennium Development Goals on education. Preservation and development of these achievements is an important challenge for the education system, Jabbarov said.
According to the minister, it is necessary to take further steps to bring the quality of education in line with European and international standards.
"With this particular need, the concept of "Azerbaijan 2020: A vision into the Future" provides for adoption of a number of measures aimed at the formation of modern education system. Therefore, a number of objectives were identified for the period after 2015: creation of mechanisms to improve the quality of education, study and application of the principle of investing in humans at all levels of education and so forth," Jabbarov said.
He added that the mechanisms existing in the sphere of financing are not based on quality indicators and stressed that the medium of demand has not yet been formed in a form that could be fully satisfactory.