Draft Law on Education to be Discussed at Autumn Session of Azerbaijan Parliament

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Ilhamgizi / The draft law on Education, which has been devised taking into consideration the proposals of the Ministry of Education, State Commission for Student Admission, heads of universities and specialists, will be presented in discussions at the autumn session of the Azerbaijani Parliament. According to parliamentarian Asim Mollazade, this decision was made during the closed meeting of the Permanent Parliamentary Commission on Science and Education.

Chaired by the Speaker Oktay Asadov, the meeting on 24 May was attended by the Minister of Education, Misir Mardanov, Chairman of the State Commission for Student Admission, Maleyka Abbaszade, rectors of universities, parliamentarians and experts.

According to Mollazade, a number of proposals were made and contrasting views were voiced. The parliamentarian said that the oral and written proposals were presented to the Commission on Science and Education. As a result, a decision was made to present the document to the discussions of the autumn session of the Parliament. Mollazade said that contradictions emerged during the meeting with regards to the application of a multi-stage education system. The meeting also focused on the situation of the post-secondary education system.

"In order to increase the efficiency of the activities of the universities, I offered to attract the students to management of the universities and increase their responsibilities. In addition, it needs to increase the role of the parents in the post-secondary education system. In order to create a competition amongst schools, it is possible to pay part of the State finances for education to the parents as voucher. According to the Bolonisk Agreement, I offered to include the credit system in universities into the Law on Education," Mollazade said.