Azerbaijan, Baku, 30 April / corr. Trend J. Babayeva/ The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan did not approve the proposal of the Ministry of Education to decrease the number of specialties in the higher schools from 500 to 147.
"The number of specialties is expected to decrease in 2009-2010 academic year," Misir Mardanov, the minister of education of Azerbaijan said to media on 30 April.
According to Bologna standards, the students are admitted to higher schools on not more than 150 specialties. Azerbaijan has joined the Bologna system since 2005. Previously, the students were admitted for 500 different specialties for the Bachelor's degree.
Azerbaijan has planned to decrease the number of Bachelor's degree specialties in 2008. The working group has been set up to develop the Government Program on the Reforms in the Higher Education System of the Azerbaijan Republic for 2008-2012, in line with the presidential decree.
The minister of education said earlier that the World Bank ha expressed its readiness to allocate grants to Azerbaijani government to develop the draft of the state program.
Azerbaijan has further increased the expenditures for education for 2008. According to Trend , the Bill on Changes to the State Budget for 2008 envisages increase in the education expenditures by 18.6% in 2008.
The education expenditures of the country were approved at AZN973.873.000 for 2008 State Budget.
After the changes, the budget expenditures for education will rise up to AZN1.115.000.000. About AZN71mln will be allocated for pre-school and primary education, AZN575.9mln - for secondary education, AZN38.3mln- for the boarding schools, AZN50.696mln - for vocational schools and lycees, AZN97.5mln - for higher education, AZN3.6mln - for the application investment in education sphere and some AZN277.7mln - for the other education purposes.
On 2 May, the Cabinet will report on fulfilment of the public budget of 2007 at the parliamentary meeting