Within realization of State Program on Informatization of Education System of Azerbaijan for 2008-2012, the number of computers was increased. If earlier one computer was accounted for 29 pupils, now this figure has fallen to 26.
The State Program includes several important components, of which execution will yield expected effect on the process of informatization. First, under the State Program, trainings began for teachers for the introduction of information technologies in education. In other words, using international educational technologies, teachers of different subjects gain skills on the practical application of information technologies in education. Such trainings have already been for more than 10,000 teachers. There are plans to train about 20,000 teachers by the end of 2009.
The Ministry has completed the connection of 20 schools of the capital to the fiber-optic network linking the Ministry of Education and General Educational Administration of Baku. By the end of the year, the number of schools connected to the network reached 50. This will connect schools to the high-speed Internet. Works are carried out with Electronic School pilot project.
Work to establish a system to use opportunities of electronic education continues. Human factors play an important role in this component. But not all teachers - for age and other reasons - easily learn modern methods of teaching children. However, applying new, innovative technologies of teaching to even part of the school teachers makes other teachers to push themselves to this level, and parents becomes interested that their children learn from teachers who know information technologies. In addition, the Ministry of Education made mandatory the ICT training for teachers.
There are plans to establish an Internet forum of teachers, who were trained, where they can share experiences and discuss pressing issues. It will also serve to improve teacher education on ICT.
The main goal of the project is to create a unified educational information environment to improve the quality of education using IT and ensure country's integration into the global system of education. This will enable to effectively manage country's education system, as well as contact with educational institutions of foreign countries through a global network.
Currently the first phase of works to create an educational gateway was completed. Functions of the gateway provide access to four user groups: teachers, pupils, students and parents, for each of whom was defined a special interface. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Education, up to now, about 300 electronic learning resources were placed on the gateway that are available for teachers.