In 2012, the administration of graduation exams was entrusted to the State Examination Center (SEC). Extensive and intense discussions were held regarding this decision. Mathematics and Azerbaijani language were the core subjects in the graduation exams. Various proposals were put forward regarding what the third subject should be.
elchi reports, citing “Azərbaycan müəllimi”, that Maleyka Abbaszade, Chair of the Board of Directors of the State Examination Center, said this at an event titled “Assessment in foreign language subjects at the full secondary education level: new approaches and perspectives”.
She stated that at the insistence of Mikayil Jabbarov, who was the Minister of Education that year, a foreign language was included in the list of graduation exam subjects:
“To be honest, I was against the third subject being a foreign language. This is because some schools’ certificates noted that the foreign language subject was not taught. There were even cases where this subject was taught for only a year or two in certain schools and was later discontinued due to a shortage of teachers. For this reason, we did not consider it appropriate to include that subject in the list of graduation exam subjects.”
According to the SEC chair, time has shown that including the foreign language subject in the list of graduation exam subjects was the right decision. Foreign language skills open up new opportunities and perspectives in the future lives of young people.