Baku, March 30, AZERTAC

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) donated 875 pieces of Tablet PC to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Education under the project titled “The Technical Assistance (Grant) Project for Teachers’ Capacity Building and Establishment of Educational Information System for the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan” in order to support and assistance to the schools in Azerbaijan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The handover ceremony was held on March 29, at the Ministry of Education.

The event participants included Ambassador of Republic of Korea in Azerbaijan Lee Eun Yong, Country Director of the KOICA Azerbaijan Office Moon Jong Hyun, Deputy Minister of Education Mukhtar Mammadaov, Head of the ICT Bureau for Education Vusal Khanlarov and other representatives.

In his speech, Ambassador Lee Eun Yong noted that “Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, countries around the world have introduced quarantine policies to prepare for a pandemic, and have experienced the suspension of face-to-face classes that they have never experienced before. Ambassador also expressed his appreciation to the Azerbaijan Ministry of Education that even during this hard crisis situation - Covid-19- the Ministry could proactively implement and successfully establish the Virtual School project, an online education platform, could achieve success in maintaining the continuity and sustainability of education by providing distance education training and mentoring for teachers within the era of Covid-19. He also stressed the importance of “The Technical Assistance (Grant) Project for Teachers’ Capacity Building and Establishment of Educational Information System for the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan” between KOICA and the Ministry of Education and added that the implementation of this project contributed a lot to reduce the impact of COVID-19. Through this project, an online education system for teachers was established, and more than 300 teachers participated in the online training. At the same time, KOICA provided server equipment to the Data Center of ICT Bureau for Education under the Ministry, to ensure sustainable online education. At the end of his speech Ambassador Lee Eun Yong emphasized, “Today, we held an event regarding the donation of 875 tablet PCs in order to actively support the Ministry of Education's efforts to respond to COVID-19. We sincerely hope that these various supports will provide direct benefits to teachers and students, as well as it will serve as an opportunity to ensure stable operation of the curriculum and learning opportunities.”

Afterwards, Deputy minister Mukhtar Mammadov added that “The provided equipment will support continuous education during the pandemic, sustain the digitalization of learning, and will accelerate the provision of teaching in the future.”

During the ceremony a handover document was signed between the KOICA Azerbaijan Office and the Ministry of Education.

The Record of Discussion of the project was signed between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Government of Korea in 2017. Until now the Project Master Plan was developed, E-learning System was established, the Capacity building program for teachers was completed, and equipment for Data Center of the Ministry was delivered. Further activities related to the development of e-learning contents and designing of Multimedia studio room are underway.