Views & Opinion The European Azerbaijan School –


a blueprint for educational transformation Comment by Tale Heydarov, founder and Chairman of The European Azerbaijan Society


Azerbaijan is, in many ways, a very fortunate country. Our land is rich in natural wealth. But our greatest resource is not energy or precious metals but our young people.


One in two of our 10 million population is under 30. Nearly 25 per cent are under 15. We know it is the energy and talent of our young people which will enable our country to achieve our ambitions.


But to maximise these benefits, we have to give our young people the tools to make the most of their potential. And that means making sure they get the best possible education.


We have a great platform to build on. Literacy, unlike many countries in the region, is almost universal. Azerbaijan was the first Muslim country to create modern universities.


But our education system has much to do to keep up with the best in the world, and give young people the skills and confidence they need to adapt their knowledge to a world changing faster than ever.


Given that the jobs they will fill and the technology they will use may not yet exist, it is not enough to simply require them to learn what we know. We need to equip them to think on their feet, to challenge what they learn as the best education systems already do.


It is this approach which lies at the heart of the European Azerbaijan School (EAS) which opened in Baku in September 2011.


The school’s primary objective is to equip its students with the skills necessary for them to flourish in their future careers, whether in Azerbaijan or further afield. Inspired by the Ministry of Education’s plans to transform education in the country, EAS has established a blueprint for educational transformation.


1. Learning how to learn


At EAS, teaching is not a one-way process- children are actively engaged in their own learning. Gone are the days of children being seen as empty vessels into which facts can be poured. They are encouraged not to simply


regurgitate information, but to learn how to learn; this means that discovering for themselves what it is that they need to learn, rather than being told by their teachers. This is a fundamental pillar of the school’s philosophy, and is one of the many ways in which EAS is forging new paths in the country.


2. Equip children with skills for the jobs of tomorrow


App developer. Social media manager. Cloud computing expert. These are just three of many job descriptions which barely existed five years ago. The lesson here is that we should not attempt to mould children of today into the jobs of tomorrow, since we do not know what these jobs will be. Instead, we should equip our children with the knowledge and, most importantly, the skills required to be leaders in any field that they choose to go into.


3. Education outside the classroom Extra-curricular activities are a vital part of a child’s development, and EAS is committed to offering its children a varied programme which includes sports, drama, chess, dancing, choir, traditional carpet-making, drawing and pottery. The importance of such activities is difficult to overstate. They teach children the value of being part of a team working towards a long-term goal. They help them discover new interests, forge new relationships and raise self-esteem. And they help children learn to structure their time and to plan ahead- for example if they want to make football training, they need to make sure their homework is done on time!


4. The highest international standards Azerbaijan sits at the crossroads of Europe and the rest of the world. We are an outward-looking nation with much to contribute to the global community, but we also have a great deal to learn from others.


With this in mind, EAS is in the process of becoming an approved International


Baccalaureate Organisation, enabling our students to benefit from a world class international curriculum. EAS is also already building links with other schools across the country to help modernise teaching techniques.


5. Speaking the world’s languages We also recognise the importance of our children becoming multilingual in an open economy. This means that although lessons are conducted in Azerbaijani, English and Russian are also weaved into the curriculum- for example in drama lessons. Interactive storytelling techniques, such as dialogic reading, are used to enable young children with very few words to become enthusiastic readers and develop a love of reading that will stay with them for the rest of their life.


6. Education in a Digital age


With technology making children more visually- oriented, children require constant stimulation. EAS uses SMART boards in virtually every classroom, as well as other interactive teaching technologies such as Mimio interactive displays. Many countries have used these facilities for years, but the challenge for other national is to make them cost-effective. In an era where you can turn a $40 video game controller into a digital whiteboard, anything is possible.


7. Education for all


Providing our children with top-class facilities is not cheap, and so EAS is a fee-paying school. However we recognise that the brightest minds of tomorrow could come from any section of our society. With that in mind, we keep our fees to an absolute minimum, and provide scholarships to students who show outstanding potential. Bright children from every background can therefore benefit from the education the EAS provides. Currently one in six children at the school benefit from scholarships in some form, and this is something I am passionate about maintaining.


8. Getting parents and teachers onside This is maybe the most crucial step of all. The blueprint outlined above will only achieve educational transformation if parents and teachers buy into this new philosophy. This will not be easy; many will have grown up in a different educational era- one of rota learning, a narrow curriculum and an inward- looking attitude to languages and educational standards. But it is essential that teachers and the wider community embrace discoveries that have been made by the educational community, and learn from the successes and failures of the past. Through the example we are setting, the achievements of our pupils and the links we are building, we hope to play our part in driving up educational standards throughout Azerbaijan. If we give our young people the skills to succeed, we can rely on them to build the future we all want for our country. That’s the real reason, I believe, we are such a fortunate country.


March 2015 www.education-today.co.uk 13


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