“What is the obstacle for the teacher, the school and the principal to continue teaching at any level? It seems as if teaching at school has been pushed aside and administrative work has become the main one. School principals are more busy with administrative work than they spend time on pedagogical work.”
These views, expressed at the traditional September conference of educators, raised the question of the responsibilities of principals in secondary schools. “How can we make our educators more involved in students’ learning?” In the context of searching for an answer to the question, Minister of Science and Education Emin Amrullayev raised the issue of not holding classes in schools after May 31: “Efficiency decreases in the last two weeks before the end of the school year. On the eve of that, it seems as if we are rushing to go to summer vacation.” But how to regulate such issues that hinder the development of education?
“Caspian” newspaper article on the subject.
According to MP Jeyhun Mammadov, administrative work is one of the main activities of the school and it is not possible to neglect it. Otherwise, additional problems will arise: “In reality, schools have staff who can do administrative work and they are busy with these jobs. These jobs should be entrusted to such staff more. School management should be more involved in teaching and training.”
As for the issue of additional training of students, the deputy believes that special work needs to be done in this direction: “The main thing is that tutoring activities in schools should be prevented. In this process, both administrative work and propaganda work should be carried out. The current reality is that tutoring in our schools is carried out by teachers themselves in one form or another. The schools themselves must carry out the work in this direction, that is, teachers must carry out teaching in such a way that children do not come out. Sometimes teachers themselves carry out the training process in such a way that children are involved in the training of tutors. In this direction, it is necessary to carry out work systematically.
Distinguished Professor of the Amonashvili Academy of Humanistic Pedagogy Asif Jahangirov confirms that the minister’s remark about the poor involvement of many school principals in the organization and management of the teaching-learning process fully reflects the real situation: from throwing a piece of paper on the floor, from having a conflict between two students, from the official response to local and inappropriate requests from various authorities, to organizing students’ attendance, to repelling parental discontent, etc. – all of them. However, the principal’s main task is to ensure the quality of education in accordance with modern requirements and to ensure that the teaching-learning process is optimally organized. The principal focuses more on technical issues, such as writing some number wrong in the diary, committing some violation, etc. Rather, he should focus on the effective management of the teaching-learning process. I believe that all the details of the director’s activity, even seemingly insignificant issues, should be disclosed, new regulations should be adopted, and therefore they should be officially released from secondary work.” A. Jahangirov believes that the professional development of school directors should be supported, a modern school should receive special training on the director and his competencies, strategic planning, internal monitoring, organization of the teaching-learning process, student assessment and other issues.
The expert also expressed his opinion on the fact that students from the school year do not come to classes after May 31: “In fact, this problem does not arise after May 31, but from March. During this period, centralized final exams in three subjects and university entrance exams are held in March. “No matter how many arguments are put forward for organizing it in May, the fact is that after the exams students are not interested in classes.” A. Jahangirov is in favor of returning the dates of graduation and university entrance exams to the traditional rules: “School exams should be held only after the end of the academic year. It would be more appropriate to hold graduation exams after June 15, and entrance exams in July.”
Gunay Akbarova, Secretary of the Public Council under the Ministry of Science and Education, believes it is important to strengthen the teaching-learning process in schools: “New teaching methods and textbooks are more comprehensive and instructive compared to previous textbooks and methods. It is only necessary for teachers to use the new materials more correctly, and for tutoring, it is necessary to provide training on the ways of assimilation without the need for it.”
