"Azerbaijan is one of the most humane countries towards teachers."
These words were said by education researcher Elmin Nuri on "AzEdu Podcast".
"What prohibitions are imposed on teachers in European countries, America, or highly developed Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, which we praise so much? What is the situation really like there? Why do I emphasize this issue specifically? Because in international practice, the school, the learner, and the educator are not separated from each other. Sometimes decisions applied to students are also applied to teachers. Why is this so? Because teaching is a single organism, a whole process. It has three main branches: the learner (student), the educator (teacher), and the control mechanism (parent and school administration). It is absolutely impossible to isolate them from each other.
Some may think, "They're picking on teachers again, all the prohibitions were for students, now it's the teacher's turn?" Yes, this is a model that has been tested and formed in international practice, and we are not going to reinvent the wheel that has already been discovered. Look, today in many countries, "TikTok" is completely banned for students and minors, and even in some places for teenagers up to 16-18 years old. In our country, only a certain stage of restriction has been reached. I'm not even talking about other social networks, in some developed countries, students are generally prohibited from accessing the internet. And these countries are not archaic, isolated states. On the contrary, they are countries with the highest level of education and technology.
What is the reason for all this? The reason is that education should form a unified whole for everyone. There is also a serious psychological point here: if a student sees that the teacher in front of him uses "YouTube", "TikTok", "Instagram" and other social networks excessively and without limits, then he will never be able to accept the restriction imposed on him correctly. Student psychology is extremely sensitive. We should never forget this.
In world practice, teachers' social network activity is mainly divided into three groups. The first group – activity that contributes purely to the education and teaching process; the second group – posts dedicated to the user's own PR and extracurricular activities; and the third group is undesirable activity that can, to some extent, harm the educational process.
The example that occurred in one of our regions and caused discussions belongs precisely to this third group. My research on this topic shows that cases belonging to the third group are increasing in countries around the world and, unfortunately, are starting to outweigh the other two positive groups. That is why we must definitely prevent this. Personally, as a citizen, I also felt this more and more in daily life. Our endless respect for our teachers has always been and will be, because the teacher is the main figure in education.
Today, teachers should actually be happy that issues related to them are widely discussed. Why do I say this? Because there are foreign countries where, when hiring a teacher, they go through such strict and difficult tests and competitions that the candidate is ultimately selected with great responsibility. Because the teaching profession is a great responsibility, honor, and a heavy obligation to future generations. We say this precisely based on international experience.
The teacher is an important figure and I say quite sincerely: teachers' activities on social networks should be brought under certain control. As in all world education, this area should be regulated in our country as well. Someone may react with dissatisfaction and ask, "Is the teacher a child?" No, the teacher is not a child, but a person with great responsibility. A control program and ethical frameworks containing rules for using social networks should be developed for them. Otherwise, unfortunately, in some cases we see the exact opposite. This directly harms the student, as well as the reputation of the school.
As we just mentioned, Azerbaijan is one of the most humane countries towards teachers. I sincerely state: during the certification process, a sufficiently humane approach is taken towards the teacher. In the full-time teacher model, which has been frequently discussed recently and will be implemented from next year, extremely humane tendencies are also demonstrated towards the teacher. Moreover, if you read the codes of conduct for educators within the school, you will clearly see that both very strict requirements and extremely humane approaches directed at the teacher are present together. I know some will disagree with this and write various opinions in the comments. Of course, we respect everyone's opinion as long as they don't cross the red line – just as we express our position here. The teacher, however, does not have the opportunity to respond here at the moment, but they also have their own audience. Let them express their opinion, as long as they take reality into account.
Sometimes those who listen to us rightly say, "Why does the teacher get angry when they hear these words?" Before getting angry, let them make a comparison. Thankfully, we have artificial intelligence tools, internet networks, and open sources at our disposal. Let them compare it with global experience once and they will see that the situation is indeed as we say. We sometimes focus too much on the negatives: "Oh, the teacher's salary was low," "Oh, it was like this, it was like that."
Some think that we are only picking on the teacher:
"My dears, our job as representatives of the education community is to voice existing problems. At the same time, it is also our job to voice positive directions in education and points that will stimulate development. We know very well that the main force keeping education alive today is the teacher. Therefore, we respectfully pronounce the name of the teacher and this should not be interpreted in any other direction."
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