Shadow education is increasingly surpassing the high school

Baku/18.04.21/Turan: In the last 25 years, shadow education, i.e. tutoring, has become widespread in Azerbaijan. The state allocates more than 3 billion manats annually for education, most of which falls to secondary education, and 4,500 new schools have been built in 15 years. But a large share of secondary education, especially in the upper grades, is in the "shadows". Speaking to Turan, Ilham Ahmadov, an associate professor of mathematics at the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, expressed concern over the violation of teaching in the upper grades and the emptiness of classrooms.

"There is an opinion in the country that a student who does not go to a tutor has no chance to be admitted to the university. If each student goes to a tutor for 2 years, it costs the family 10,000-15,000 manats. If there are several children in the family, the cost is much higher for the family. The turnover in this field is about a billion manats. Why should a parent who pays tax on his/her salary pay so much extra for the secondary education of his/her child?" Ahmadov asked a rhetorical question.

He worries that parents spend a lot of extra money, get into debt, and have trouble paying tuition when their children enter university.

"The reason is that the school can't do its job; otherwise, why do parents spend so much money on tutors in these difficult times? Tutoring classes cause students to become overworked and then find various diseases, which is a separate topic of conversation," said the associate professor, referring to the responsibility of the Ministry of Education (MoE):

- When these issues were discussed 15 years ago, MoE officials said that tutoring exists in many countries. But they did not say that it is not so widespread in any country. There is a public opinion that the inactivity of the relevant institutions also plays an important role in the establishment and longevity of tutoring.

I wonder when this shadow education will be prevented? Who should do it? - The associate professor asked the MoE again.

Vafa Yagublu, head of the General and Preschool Education Department of the Ministry of Education, explained the ministry's attitude regarding this issue to journalists. On April 1 (2021), according to Tehsil.biz, “Tutoring is not under the activity of the Ministry of Education, it is a business area. Decisions in this regard are made by the Cabinet of Ministers," Vafa Yagublu said.

Misir Mammadov, who was the Minister of Education at the time, says: "Currently, tutoring is observed in almost all countries of the world to one degree or another. It is more widespread in some countries. Such that in Asian (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Singapore), African (Guinea, Mauritius, Morocco, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), North American (Canada, USA), South American (Brazil), European (Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Turkey, Great Britain, France) countries, 50-70% of students use the services of tutors. In Japan, students go to a "skill school", or rather "tutoring school", to move on to another level of high school and university. Specially invited teachers at that school re-explain what has been taught to students in the main school and add new ones to this knowledge so that students can pass the exam at a high level. Such a tutoring school was established in Tokyo in the XVII century. A 1999 survey in the country found that more than 90 percent of urban children received individual lessons in one way or another (Misir MARDANOV, Minister of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor. 525th newspaper - 2010 - May 15) —0—