Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr I. Alizadeh / Azerbaijani Education Minister denies reports of violation in the training program in secondary schools and lyceums of the Turkish Chag company.
The students are forced to wear religious clothes and to attend religious studies. The Minister is satisfied with the level of education and upbringing process in the educational institutions, he said to journalists on 24 September.
"We received reports saying the students in these schools are being forced to pray. There are special rooms for this purpose. In order to verify these reports we made spot checks on the Chag Oyretim schools several years ago and no illegal actions were registered," the Minister said.
Turkish Chag Oyretim company began its activities in Azerbaijan in 1992. The company owns schools, lyceums, and universities worldwide and many educational institutions in Azerbaijan.
Chag Oyretim is owned by the Turkish religious trend of 'Nurchu'. The leader of 'Nurchu' followers, Fatullah Gulen, is wanted in Turkey. He has been residing in the United States for several years. The Russian Government decided to close all schools and lyceums of Chag Oyretim in the Russian Federation.
There are reports of religious propaganda in the company schools functioning in Azerbaijan, forcing the students to attend religious ceremonies, attracting children from poor families by making some concessions.
According to Mardanov, monitoring exercises and research carried out in recent years has shown that the education provided by Chag Oyretim is at a top level.