Lyceums named "Istek» will be closed

Baku / 11.07.18 / Turan: For a week the pedagogical staff and pupils of lyceums named "Istek", as well as the parents of more than 2000 lyceum students are in anxious expectation. There are 12 such lyceums in Azerbaijan, 4 of which are in the capital, the rest in the regions of the country.

They are waiting for a response from the Ministry of Education about the fate of the said educational institution. Previously, the founder of the "Istek" lyceum network appealed to the main educational institution of the country for making decisions on suspension of the activity of this educational institution. The requested to assist in employment the teachers of the lyceums, transferring students to other schools so that young talents could continue studying. By the way, the youngest start-up participant of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, held last year in India, Ryan Jamalova, who designed the device for converting energy of rain to electricity and received a reward for her invention, was not successful.

Information about the closure of the lyceums "Istek", whose name is known to everyone, caused the effect of an exploding bomb. If it were a question of a business structure, oligarchs,

then it was possible to talk about the intrigues of competitors, the struggle for monopoly spheres. But in the educational market of the country while everything is stable, there is no need to speak about tough competition, unlike the sphere of medicine, construction and trade. This decision is strange because a week earlier, the parents of the students phoned the lyceum administration to extend the contracts for the next academic year, and to pay the tuition fee in advance.

Suddenly, out of the blue, "Istek" is being closed. The attempts of parents to meet with the founder of the network, who put them before the fact and the management of educational institutions, were futile. All the management of the holding, the rest of the managers kept a defense, refusing any contacts with parents, especially with journalists.

Numerous attempts of the correspondent of Turan to contact the director of the Baku Lyceum "Istek" Samir Shamiev were unsuccessful. When they heard the request to comment on this topic, on the other end of the wire they reported either the absence of leadership of the Lyceum or about urgent assistance, which is not known when it will end.

Nevertheless, the author of the article managed to talk with one of the teachers of the Lyceum who preferred anonymity.

"For us, this news is a complete surprise. There is not yet official statement on the reasons for closing the lyceums. But we were informed that the main reason is financial problems. In addition to salary of teachers and technical staff, current repair of classes also includes expenses for food and rent in Baku for flats for out-of-town gifted students. For them, the administration is renting a dwelling, which is not cheap; 2000 people study today in 12 lycées. Parents regularly pay for their studies. In Baku, training costs from 7,000 to 10,000 manat a year, in the regions - 4,000 manats per year. But apparently these funds were not enough to continue activities," said the interlocutor "T".

The situation around lyceums "Istek" arose not suddenly or spontaneously. They were created in Azerbaijan in the early 1990s, then they were called "Dədə Qorqud" and were part of the group "Cağ Oyretim" - a global educational network under the auspices of the Hizmet Movement, led by the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen. But five years ago, persecution of Gulen's followers began in Turkey. The initiative was also taken up by the Azerbaijani authorities. They were immediately fired. Then the "black band" began in the life of the "Cağ Oyretim". Private Turkish lyceums were renamed to "Istek". But this did not save the situation: the number of people turning to lyceums began to decline, and highly professional teachers had to leave the school. As a result, the indicators of the graduates of lyceums "Istek" began to deteriorate.

According to the State Examination Center, in 2011 Lyceums "Dədə Qorqud" were regarded as the best general educational institutions of the country, whose graduates had high scores in the entrance examinations to universities. Students took part in international Olympiads and won medals. In the reports for the previous several years, the lyceums renamed to "Istek" did not fall into this rating at all, which indicates a decrease in the level of education of children in these institutions. Parents chose other schools and lyceums.

According to the source of Turan, staff of the Lyceums "Istek" hope that the Ministry of Education will find a way out, will not allow to close these educational institutions. An important task is to find a sponsor who will finance the lyceums.

Meanwhile, the ministry has a working group to distribute students and teaching staff to other educational institutions. Pupils and their parents were told that all conditions will be created for continuing their studies in the appropriate educational institutions at the pupils' choice, and also depending on the desire of the teachers working in this school to distribute them in other educational institutions. -0--