Education is one of the important aspects of life in Azerbaijan. Everybody tries to get the best education. The purpose of education in Azerbaijan is to get as much knowledge as possible. Schools� education should prepare you to colleges. It is more theoretical than practical. High school education in Azerbaijan is different than in the US. For example, every subject is required, which means there isn�t an elective subject. But you can choose the class. There are some classes where you take more humanitarian subjects, or more math, or more science and ect. Here in the US basically you take one subject only once, like physics or chemistry. But in Azerbaijan we are required to take physics from 7th grade to 11th grade. (By the way, we don�t have 12th grades, 11th grades are graduating grades.)

I don�t think that every child gets an equal education. it basically depends on a school, teachers, city. Some private schools provide better education than public schools. Schools in main cities have better education than schools in urban areas. There is also unemployment problem in urban schools. Teachers don�t want to go to urban schools, because they don�t get paid well. Besides, teachers� income is measurable. I know this for sure, because almost every other person in my family is a teacher. Teachers get paid amore in private schools than in public schools. But here in the US teachers in public schools get paid more than in private schools. I go to a private school here in the USA. That�s why I know what I am talking about.

My old school in Azerbaijan was a public school. We had two labs for physics and for chemistry. But we never really used them. Because, we didn�t have enough supplies. Every public school in Azerbaijan is free. In my school we had only 10 computers for 2000 students. Only one class was allowed to use those computers. Some schools don�t even have computers.

High school education in Azerbaijan is not on a high level. The majority of juniors and seniors go to a personal tutors in order to get ready for final exams for entering universities and colleges. But not everybody can afford a personal tutor. There fore, the poor population has a less chance of getting better education.

We still learn about evolution. We learn Darwin�s theories about evolution. Some people are against that evolution. But it is still required. Besides, in order to pass the exam for medical university we have to learn Darwin�s theory of evolution.

We used to have testing at the end of every year, which determines whether you go to the next grade or not. If you can�t pass tests (It is not only one test, it could be, oral quiz, essay or multiple choice tests. Most of the time we take all of them from different subjects) you�ll be at the same grade again. But I think this year, education ministry had a new law, which canceled final testing for every grade, except 9th and 11th grades. After the 9th grade you can go to a career college, but not to a university.

I gave those examples according to my old school�s education and to things that I knew about education in Azerbaijan.