Azerbaijan, Baku, March 3 / Trend H. Valiyev /
Microsoft Azerbaijan will launch Peer Coaching, a program of mutual coaching of colleagues in secondary schools in Azerbaijan, Emin Akhundov, Microsoft Azerbaijan's Manager in charge of the Partnership in Education Program, told Trend .
According to Akhundov, this will allow schools to serve and use the existing computers more effectively and encourage teachers to explore technologies as a means of expanding the teaching and learning opportunities.
"This year will become a year of Peer Coaching's establishment in Azerbaijan. The Program is allocated for teachers with different levels of possession of technologies and is effective following the initial participation of Microsoft and potentially may cover every teacher and every pupil in the country. This year, we plan to conduct training courses for teachers and select around 20 pilot schools to implement the Program in practice. In 2011, the project is likely to cover a bigger number of schools," Akhundov said.
Under the 2008-2012 State Educational System Informatization Program, undergoing training in Azerbaijan are around 20,000 teachers of whom 20 percent to 30 percent realize their knowledge purposely. In Akhundov's view, this is related to lack of free time of teachers, who also lack help of a methodologist who could have explained ways of application of the acquired knowledge at lessons to them. As a result, the quality of the taught subject does not correspond to the required level.
Once Peer Coaching is implemented, teachers will be covered with undertakings directed at stimulation of permanent joint work and improvement of professional skills.
The model Microsoft plans to launch in secondary schools envisions primarily support to teachers. Working in every school will be methodologists who, at various times, will be able to answer teachers' questions concerning either IT-field or different school subjects. It is planned to make the entire efforts interactively to satisfy a wide spectrum of demands in the training and upgrading of professional skills of teachers. Once schools are linked to the Internet, the Program's geography will become much broader and, in parallel with this, the number of participants of the Program will increase.