Historians Indignant at Reduction of Teaching of History of Azerbaijan

Baku / 19.08.20 / Turan: A group of Azerbaijani historians circulated an appeal to the Ministry of Education, in which they demand to revise the policy of the department aimed at reducing teaching in universities of the History of Azerbaijan.

The statement was made following the results of an online conference of historians held on August 15, who believe that the replacement of History of Azerbaijan with the course History of Modern Statehood of Azerbaijan, with the reduction of teaching hours of the subject, causes serious concern in society.

Earlier, part of the intelligentsia sent an open letter to the President, in which they also reported that the ministry was reducing the hours of teaching the history of Azerbaijan when planning the new academic year. Given that in recent years, the teaching of this subject has already been reduced by about a third.

The authors of the appeal to the Ministry of Education note that such an attitude to the subject "History of Azerbaijan" means denial of the ancient statehood of our people, continuity in the creation of Azerbaijani states.

Historians recall the ongoing war for the country's territorial integrity, the need to maintain the patriotic aspirations of Azerbaijani youth at a high level.

The course History of Azerbaijan should be preserved, its teaching raised to a modern methodological level with an increase in teaching hours. Refusal to fully teach the history of the country is a strategic mistake, historians urge.

The curriculum for 2020-2021 provides for a reduction in the teaching hours of the history of Azerbaijan from 315 to 210 hours in history faculties, from 120 to 60 hours in non-history faculties.

The online conference of historians was called “Attitudes towards the new methodology of teaching history, language and literature.

Historian of Baku State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Elmira Muradalieva, in an interview with Turan, said that history teachers are not informed in detail about the changes envisaged for the next academic year. Historians are indignant at the reduction of teaching of History of Azerbaijan.

She believes that, judging by the name of the new course, it differs from the History of Azerbaijan. "The course History of Azerbaijan began from antiquity (primitive communal system) and described the events to the present day. Now, apparently, the hours have been reduced, therefore it will be like a special course on the history of Azerbaijani statehood, starting only from 1918. Thus, our history is limited to 100 years. Prior to this, the Armenian occupants declared that we have a 100-year history, now they will have a "foundation" for such words,” E. Muradalieva noted.

The head of the press service of the Ministry of Education, Jasaret Valehov, told Turan that historians are unnecessarily worried, as the authors of the appeal claim, there is no problem. The Ministry of Education is holding meetings with historians to discuss the existing disagreement. —0—