Rustam Gasimov
'Educate people - so do it better; educate people - means increase their morality; make them literate - means civilize them' - Victor Hugo.
Recently, the Ministry of Education has been increasingly criticized, and each time the criticism becomes stricter. But why? Is everything so bad and does the crisis absorb our education more and more every year?
The recent talk of students on public transport was another proof of how corrupt our education is. It is more like training market, where money talks. The students discussed the impending January session and believed what sum of money the examinations and marks will cost them. According to the first one, he will have to spend about 1,500 manat to give all the necessary bribes and "successfully" pass such a "hard" educational test. And his companion said with a grin that he should get somewhere 2,000 manats, because at his university the fees are quite high and the level of the institution and the authority of the teachers is costly. In addition, the students repeatedly noted that the wholesale costs of the exams are much cheaper than paying for each test individually. As they say, in this case, you can count on discounts. During the conversation, both students agreed on the opinion that during the session they will have to tighten their belts, and maybe take out a loan and call their parents and relatives for help to pass the exam with money.
If I had not finished one of the Baku universities and if I had heard such a conversation for the first time, I would have probably not believed it. But repeated discussion of such topics, namely, passing the exams by using the old tried and tested method, has already entered into the habit of a large number of students of Baku State University, where, during each session, some deans and teachers make profits. Many of them even buy cars and apartments after a fruitful and fertile session.
Many students in the capital do not even realize all the essence, importance and value of education. Their behavior proves it. Not only that, many of them study on a paid basis, forcing their parents to go into debt and find money for their so-called education, so they do not seek knowledge, miss classes and pass exams only for money. Then what is the logic, gentlemen? They study, but their heads are empty and dull, as in the tank. And who cares? Many people would agree that it 's more like a rhetorical question.
For example, in most countries in Europe, Asia and America, people understand the importance of education. Indeed, in developed countries around the world higher education is paid, where parents pay large sums of money for their children to get good education, possess knowledge, skills and abilities, become good specialists and subsequently benefit their country and society, swelling the ranks of the intelligentsia.
But our situation is radically different. Many Azerbaijani students pay money not to get important and necessary knowledge for their life and future work, but in order not to attend classes and get rid of excess headache, in their opinion, just to get a diploma upon graduation. But the new "highly qualified" experts, which the universities of our country diligently release every year, get more and more degraded. These people do not know basic things, and even more do not have any idea of their profession. Therefore, in any area, from education to medicine, the lack of specialists and the deplorable state is seen with the naked eye.
In this regard, many of our fellow citizens are even afraid of, for example, visiting local doctors because they do not want to die on the surgical operating table from simple operations such as appendectomy, and travel to neighboring countries such as Iran, Turkey and Russia, believing that their health care is in better shape than ours.
Looking through the Top 100 best universities in the world 2013-14, compiled by the British company QS Quacquarelli Symonds, I tried to find our local representatives in it. But, alas, it included 41 universities of Western European countries, 24 universities from the U.S. and Canada, and 23 from Asia and Australia. The trio of countries with the largest number of universities which entered the top 100 universities in the world are the United States - 29 universities, the United Kingdom - 18 universities, and Australia - 7 universities. It is surprising, but Azerbaijani universities are absent there.
Then I looked at a similar rating compiled by the above company, which already included the top 200 universities in 2013. But our higher education institutions were not seen there either.
Last hopes were dashed after watching the rankings compiled by the «Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013," which included 500 world universities. Alas, our vaunted universities were not included in any of the lists above.
Achievements and results of the system and the educators are obvious. What kind of contact with global ratings may be involved when students discuss among themselves the cost of marks and compare prices at different universities, wanting to save their money?
And it all starts with the fact that many applicants even after graduation do not know who they want to become in the future, what career to choose and what to do. So they enroll in the only hope to enroll anywhere.
As for the teachers and deans of universities, many of them enjoy the lack of willingness to learn at the students, making good money from this. Some teachers even allude to the fact that the mark could be only given for a fee. Fortunately, now there are still students who learn themselves and take exams on their own. The only hope is for them. Maybe they manage to fix the situation, because otherwise we could only name it critical.
Indeed, degradation and ignorance can destroy any nation, so we have to deal with it. I hope that the newly appointed Minister of Education will still be able to carry out appropriate reforms and take us away from the corrupt education, which has already become a market education, where everything can be bought and sold.
ANN.Az
