Are students working at school obligated to go to professional development?

Question

An employee of the preschool and school education department says that students working at schools must also undergo professional development by December 31, otherwise their employment contracts will be terminated. Previously, they were told that students didn't need to undergo professional development, but now it's being enforced. Is this correct?

Reply

The main purpose of professional development is to update theoretical and practical knowledge in connection with the increasing requirements for employee qualifications and the need to master modern methods of professional activity.

Students who are studying at universities and simultaneously working at schools are already updating their theoretical and practical knowledge during their studies. Therefore, they should not be required to participate in professional development.

However, there is some confusion in the established legislative norms. For this reason, it is said that whether students working as teachers in schools participate in professional development or not depends on the orders issued when hiring them.

If a student is hired by a school on a part-time basis, they may not be required to participate in professional development at all. On the contrary, if they are working as a full-time employee, then students are required to undergo professional development.

As you may know, on August 2, 2023, Resolution No. 425 of the Cabinet of Ministers established that individuals studying in pedagogical fields in full-time, evening, or correspondence forms of higher education can be hired as full-time employees in general education institutions to carry out teaching work without hindering their studies, starting from their 3rd year.

For this reason, in most cases, students were hired as full-time employees. Appendix 1 to Resolution No. 25 of the Cabinet of Ministers dated January 17, 2022, Paragraph 2 of Clause 71 of the Regulation "On the Procedure for Organizing a System of Continuous Professional Development of Public Education Workers" states that the management of the district (city) department of public education should ensure and monitor the inclusion of all public education institutions in the system and each full-time employee in the department of public education in the relevant order for professional development.

Therefore, there are cases of involving students working as full-time staff in educational institutions in professional development.

It is known that Resolution No. 25 of the Cabinet of Ministers was signed on January 17, 2022. Resolution No. 425 of the Cabinet of Ministers, which established the rule that students can be hired as full-time employees in general education institutions to carry out teaching work, was signed a bit later, on August 2.

Therefore, the Regulation "On the Procedure for Organizing a System of Continuous Professional Development of Public Education Workers" may not contain a separate provision on whether students working as full-time staff should be involved in professional development.

To further clarify this situation, we asked this question to ministry officials at a press conference organized by the Ministry of Preschool and School Education on December 1, 2023, on the topic of conducting diagnostic tests for subject teachers.

Abduvali Ismailov, Rector of the A. Avloni National Institute of Pedagogical Mastery, answered this question in detail.

In his response, the rector of the institute stated that there is no point in requiring students working in educational institutions to attend professional development courses, and therefore it is intended not to involve them in such courses.

Thus, based on the answer given by Abduvali Ismailov, the rector of the A. Avloni National Institute of Pedagogical Mastery, it can be concluded that requiring students working at schools to attend professional development courses is an incorrect practice.