The Ministry for Culture and the Ministry of Education are the central government bodies responsible for arts and cultural education and training in the Republic of Azerbaijan. That is to say, cultural education and training institutions are divided between the Ministry for Culture and the Ministry of Education. Thus, the Ministry for Culture implements the state cultural policy for the out-of-school arts and cultural education sphere and supervises children’s music, art and painting schools, which offer primary and secondary out-of-school education to children, adolescents, and young people. The total number of children’s musical, art and painting schools in the system of the Ministry for Culture is 238. In addition, the Baku Choreography Academy, a higher education institution established on 30 April 2014, based on the Baku Choreographic School, is also in the system of the Ministry for Culture and implements general, secondary and higher education programmes in the field of choreography.
The Ministry of Education oversees artistic education in secondary schools (4433, total) by implementing music and fine arts curricula for I-IX grades. Schools providing education in culture and the arts at the special secondary level are also mainly in the system of the Ministry of Education. Education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of six and fifteen – they are entitled to 9 years of mandatory general education. Basic schooling is divided into three: primary education, general secondary and complete secondary education.
The Ministry of Education supervises most of the higher arts and cultural education institutions, such as:
- The Baku Academy of Music, named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli,
- The State University of Culture and the Arts,
- The Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Arts,
- The Azerbaijan National Conservatory.
Higher education institutions with partial teaching of individual specialisations in the field of culture, such as the Azerbaijan Architecture and Construction University and the Baku State University, are also in the curation of the Ministry of Education.
Higher education provides the three cycled training based on complete secondary education or secondary vocational education: baccalaureate, the magistrate, and doctorate. Admission to bachelor’s and master’s degrees programs in higher educational institutions in the field of culture is two-stage. At the first stage, applicants take centralised exams conducted by the State Examination Centre of the Republic of Azerbaijan. At the second stage, the aptitude exam is organised with the participation of the educational institution itself.
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