Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A is for Azerbaijan, E is for Education

We woke up today and went to school via the mini-van/public transport that takes Halima to school everyday.  In less than 30 minutes we are at School #24.  The school is not known by any other nomenclature, ala New York City's school naming system.  Today we meet with the same group of girls we met with yesterday along with a quick visit to an elementary classroom.  After about two hours at school Halima explained that we are done for the day and the afternoon will be spent giving private English lessons to students from private schools and universities.  Giving private lessons allows Halima to live, working in a public school alone would not provide her enough income.

The school system is Azerbaijan is centrally/federally controlled by the Ministry of Education in Baku.  They mandate the text books and exams that are given to the children.  Students attend public school from Kindergarten to 11th Grade.  By law they must complete at least 9th grade.  This made me think about the high trauncy and drop out rate we have specifically in DCPS.  According to Halima, most students complete 11th grade and only a few chose to stop at 9th grade. She very matter - a - factly stated, "There are no opportunities for students who do not finish at least 9th grade."   Ahh, yes,  we too give our students in the U.S. the "No Opportunites" speech, I remember it well from my days at MacFarland.  Both 9th and 11th graders are given an exam to pass/graduate, which is what many students are studying for at this moment. After 11th grade students either go to University or College (college is to learn a trade).

One fun fact for the day, although the Ministry of Education manages curriculum and testing, the local government does have their say in some interesting "aspects" of education.  For example, the mayor of Ganja decided just this Monday that female teachers at schools in his city should wear only skirts to school and women who use a head scarf can no longer do so. 

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