AZƏRBAYCANDA MÜLKİ TƏHSİLDƏ YENİ PARADİQMALAR VƏ ƏSKİ PARADOKSLAR

Sitting in a cradle of oil resources and emerging from a decade of border conflicts, Azerbaijan is a country of paradoxes facing a multitude of post-transition challenges. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan’s education system faced major challenges, resulting from rapid economic decline, hyperinflation, and budget cuts. Following the drastic decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the real spending on education fell sharply during the 1990s. According to the World Bank (2003), public spending on education in 1998 was only about 34% of the 1992 level. These economic difficulties, combined with the political instability related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, have severely constrained the Govern-ment’s ability to undertake extensive education reforms during the 1990s. Negative impacts on the education system included an influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs), shortages of school materials, poor school maintenance, demoralized and underpaid teachers, as well as outdated curriculum and teaching methods. As a result of these challenges, Azerbaijan’s education system has failed to equip students with knowledge and skills necessary to meet the demands of a modern economy, especially a knowledge-based society.