Teaching English in Azerbaijan is no easy task. Here are some highlights: Schools leftover from the Soviet days are often falling apart. Teachers employ outdated Soviet routine memorization methods and are not honestly trained in the new interactive methodology supported by the government. Most heinously, corruption permeates the entire education structure - from the very top to the very bottom.
These things are, of course, changing ... albeit slowly. Even my region, one of the least developed of all of Azerbaijan, has seen three new schools built in the past five years (one of these schools was financed by the American government). The newspapers and TV programs say everything is moving in a positive direction and the educational system is improving.
Here are some pictures of the school where I work, in which 50 IDP families are still living after the 1993 war with a neighboring country. Of about 50 classrooms, barely ten still serve as such. The rest have been converted into crude housing and storage space. A vous de decider!
These things are, of course, changing ... albeit slowly. Even my region, one of the least developed of all of Azerbaijan, has seen three new schools built in the past five years (one of these schools was financed by the American government). The newspapers and TV programs say everything is moving in a positive direction and the educational system is improving.
Here are some pictures of the school where I work, in which 50 IDP families are still living after the 1993 war with a neighboring country. Of about 50 classrooms, barely ten still serve as such. The rest have been converted into crude housing and storage space. A vous de decider!
Welcome to Number 4 School. Mind the laundry.
View from the entrance.
A kitchen/laundry room/living room on the third floor, in the place of what used to be a hallway.
The location of the old teacher's lounge, now living quarters.
The back yard of the school. Notice how all the windows are covered- in this wing only one classroom remains.
Our interior courtyard. Of all the windows you see, only three are classrooms.
