In 2012, the conduct of graduation exams was entrusted to the State Examination Center (SEC). Extensive and intense discussions were held regarding this decision. In the same year, at the insistence of the Minister of Education Mikayil Jabbarov, the foreign language subject was included in the graduation exam. This was noted by Maleyka Abbaszade, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the State Examination Center (SEC), during her speech at the event. She stated: “To be honest, I was against the third subject being a foreign language”.
Science and education expert Sabuh Abdullayev gave a statement to AzEdu.az on the topic.
He noted that having mathematics and native language as subjects in the graduation exam is sufficient:
"The conditions for the foreign language subject determined in the graduation exams are becoming quite difficult. I think that conducting an exam at this level for a foreign language is not correct. For those taking the graduation exam, knowing Azerbaijani language and mathematics subjects is mainly sufficient. That is, having mathematics and native language as subjects in the graduation exam is sufficient".
If the addition of a third subject is inevitable, I think that instead, the graduation and block exams could be combined:
"In this case, applicants would take the exam once and could make their choice based on the results. It is also possible to provide results based on the final assessment of the school, based on average certificate grades, rather than relying solely on the results of the graduation exam. Because education continues in school even after the graduation exam, and students are also evaluated during that period.
Therefore, it is generally more appropriate to conduct the graduation and block exams together. This would be more efficient both in terms of time and in terms of reducing the additional burden on students. At the same time, it is possible to organize block exams in a more compact form.
For example, instead of numerous subjects in each block, including a maximum of one or two subjects, and taking exams in a total of 3-4 subjects, is more suitable for the admission process to higher education institutions".
