Azerbaijan education Compulsory Education

Azerbaijan education
Compulsory Education
In the 2000-2001 school year, 1,591,000 Azerbaijani students were enrolled in a total of 4,486 general education schools operated by the Ministry of Education covering grades 1 through 11, the years of compulsory education where most fees are covered by the government.
Gross enrollment in the primary classes (grades 1 through 4) and the main classes (grades 5 through 9) averaged 97 percent for boys and 96 percent for girls that year (with net enrollment rates of 89 percent for boys and 90 percent for girls).
At the secondary level gross enrollment rates were 73 percent for boys and 81 percent for girls. General education in Azerbaijan is divided into three stages:
1) four years of primary education, where students in each class are taught by a teacher who progresses with them each year up through the four primary grades,
2) main education, consisting of five years of schooling,
3) secondary education, where students receive their final two years of state-provided schooling.

Private Schools
While government-supported schools were the norm for students in basic education at the turn of the millennium, increasing efforts were being made by international organizations and other private funders to create private educational opportunities in the country, especially at upper levels. Statistics on the number of private schools operating in Azerbaijan in 2001, however, are not readily available.
In the 2000-2001 school year, 17,000 pupils attended boarding schools and 10,000 very-talented students attended 39 new kinds of educational institutions—lycées and gymnasiums—some of which may have been privately funded. Special education was provided for about 6,000 mentally and physically handicapped students through 21 boarding schools, 3 "subsidiary schools," and 2 "home-schools," although again it is unknown to what extent these schools were publicly or privately funded.