World Bank ready to finance new education projects in Azerbaijan

The World Bank (WB) is ready to start financing new education projects in Azerbaijan, head of the WB Baku office Larisa Leshchenko told media on May 27.

"Of course the real progress has been recently observed in the field of education in Azerbaijan," she said. "One must stress there is a test system of student admission in higher and secondary education institutions."

However, there are still problems such as a very low level of student admission to universities and colleges.

"Approximately 18-19 per cent of school graduates continue their education," she said. "This is a very low index even for middle-income countries including Azerbaijan and especially for the group of countries with high income which Azerbaijan is seeking to join. There are many operations in education. This requires investments and technologies. We are ready to participate in the process to bring the experience of other countries to Azerbaijan. We are negotiating with the Azerbaijani government in this direction."