Sciences and Education Committee Meets

Chairman of the Milli Majlis Sciences and Education Committee Bakhtiyar Aliyev announced as the committee met on 21 December that the agenda contained two items.

First, there was a set of third-reading amendments to the to the Labour, Family and Criminal Codes and the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as to the Laws ‘On the Rights of Child’, ‘On Barristers and the Bar Practice’, ‘On Education’, ‘On the Social Service’, ‘On the State Dactyloscopic and Genomic Registration in the Republic of Azerbaijan’ and ‘On the General Education’. And, secondly, the committee were going to look at first-reading amendments to the General Education Law.

Mr Aliyev said about the 1^st item that the Bill had been drawn up in connexion with the enforcement of the 22 October 2019 law on ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. Consequently, the document brings with itself topical legislative modifications. It is proposed to insert new identical-content articles to each of the Education Law and General Education Law, for instance. It follows from the amendments that general education institutions are duty bound to guarantee that minors are informed about the risks of sexual exploitation and abuse as well as about means of self-protection. Such informing must be tailored to specific schooling stages and have corresponding degrees of sophistication. Besides, pupils are to be supplied with general gender education.  A special emphasis is going to be on hazardous situations, especially those arising from the use of modern information communication technologies. Such instruction may involve the covered minors’ parents or legal guardians. And, on another note, persons convicted for sexual offences and, specifically, those committed against children, shall not be permitted to function as teachers.

The overview heard, the parliamentary committee suggested that the Bill in the third reading should be brought before the Milli Majlis at a meeting in plenary.

Mr Aliyev remarked whilst commenting on the 2^nd item on the agenda that, pursuant to the proposed amendments to Article 1 of the corresponding law, the concept of boarding schools pertaining to general education was given in a new edition introducing their profiling which groups them separately as general-purpose, integrated and special-education institutions.

The committee’s Etibar Aliyev, Mushfig Mammadli, Eldar Guliyev and Tamam Jafarova as well as Head of the Social Legislation Department of the Milli Majlis Staff Adil Valiyev underscored the extreme importance of the Bill before putting forth remarks and suggestions concerning the state care of children studying at boarding schools, educating them as worthy citizens and other matters.

It was decided in the end to table the 1^st-reading Bill before the House at a parliamentary plenum.

Parvin Karimzade, Afat Hasanova, Ulviya Agayeva, Aghiya Nakhchivanli and Kamila Aliyeva took part in this online meeting as well.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis