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Education – guarantee of prosperity

Analysis Materials 27 August 2009 12:15 (UTC +04:00)

The countries of the world, including Azerbaijan, have entered an epoch when much of the wealth of the society is created outside material production. The importance and value of intellectual work, level of education of the population is a prerequisite in achieving high results of socio-economic development of countries. The recipe for avoiding the crisis, which pulled the world economy, can be only one - the rate of knowledge - more precisely, economy of knowledge.

For several years, Azerbaijan has been pursuing a policy aimed at creating an effective education system that meets the requirements of the global information society, innovation and gives everyone the opportunity to fully participate in it. Financial, material and human resources provided in Azerbaijan over the years of independence for the development of education are comparable to the costs for these purposes the developed countries.

Expenditure on education in Azerbaijan ranks the second after expenditure on the army. The 2009 Public budget of Azerbaijan provided 1352.2 million manat for education, which is 21.2 percent higher than costs in 2008. With this, the country increases the share of education in the country's GDP and raises this figure to the level of developed countries, where it needs to spend 4.6 percent of the GDP on education.

Over the last five years, Azerbaijan has significantly increased the amount of the budget spent on education and science. In 2009, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's Public budget was spent on education. In addition, schools are rapidly constructed in Azerbaijan. For 4 years 1,200 new schools were built and hundreds of old schools were reconstructed.

However, comparing the level of knowledge of Azerbaijanis with the citizens of other countries, it is still possible to see significant difference. Thus, in rating of knowledge of 15 years old pupils from 57 countries, published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Azerbaijan was named in the group of countries of which pupils have shown results "below average" level.

These ratings are published every three years and are based on passing a special test (PISA), which in 2007 included questions on the exact sciences, mathematics and reading. The test also assesses the pupils' ability to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. The top ten included: Finland (the average pupil gained 563 points), Hong Kong, Canada, Taiwan, Estonia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and Liechtenstein (531 points). The pupils of these and another 10 countries demonstrated results above average.

Five countries were on average level and 22 - below the average. The last group includes the U.S. (489 points) and Russia (479 points). Besides them, this group of countries included Latvia (490 points), Lithuania (488 points), Azerbaijan (382 points) and Kyrgyzstan (322 points, the lowest result among all 57 countries).

For comparison: the pupils in Germany gained 516 points, Great Britain - 515, France - 495, Spain - 488, Italy - 475, Israel - 454, Turkey - 424, Brazil - 390, Qatar - 349.

In addition to the international ratings, according to the date provided by the State Student Admission Commission of Azerbaijan, the results of the examinations for the universities are getting worse every year. Thus, during the exams this year, only 6.5 percent of applicants gained 500 to 700 points. And 33.8 percent of applicants, in other words, approximately 1/3 could not gain more than 100 points.

Insufficient effectiveness of domestic higher institutions is related to the absence of connection with the labor market: the universities bring up a large number of specialists who are not in demand.

Because today the higher education institutions do not work for society, striving to meet its needs for specialists, but work for themselves, trying to get more people, using the demand of applicants, who often choose their future profession, based on its prestige.

Moreover, despite the ongoing reforms in the sphere of state governance, legislation, development of civil society, the corruption remains a serious problem in the education system of the country. The monitoring "Corruption in higher education: the causes and results", conducted by the Center of Assistance to Modern Education and Training, at seven public and private universities revealed that 74.6 percent of students at high schools declared about bribery. The survey was conducted amongst 1,208 students and 90 teachers.

Azerbaijan is a country seemed so rich with its gas and oil resources. However, oil will end sooner or later, and considering the quality of Azeri oil, which has always been appreciated around the world and has been in demand, it is possible to say that it will end very quickly. Azerbaijan must learn to earn at the expense of intelligence, intensification of its labor, technologies that are being introduced today. It needs to invest oil money in education, but not only in education, but also training of the most decent, intelligent, talented children. It is the capital, which will return at the hundred-fold amount.

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