Maleyka Abbaszadeh
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Maleyka Mehdi gizi Abbaszade (Mustafayeva) was born on 21 February 1953 in Baku. In 1970, upon her graduation of secondary school, she was admitted to the recently established Faculty of Calculus and Cybernetics in Moscow State University (MSU) named after M.V. Lomonosov. She successfully graduated from MSU, majoring in calculus and cybernetics, in 1975 and later on was appointed to the work of senior assistant at the Cybernetics Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.
During the years of 1975-1977, she was a trainee researcher at the Department of the Computation Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow under the guidance of Academician N.N. Moiseyev. From 1977 to 1987, she resumed her career at the Cybernetics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan as a scientist. In 1988, she defended her thesis at the Cybernetics Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev named after V. Glushkov and received a PhD degree in Technical Sciences.
In the period of 1987-1989, she worked at the Baku Teachers Training Institute as the head of the Department, called Teaching Methods of Computation Techniques and Computer Sciences. In 1989, she was a senior scientist at the Institute of Petroleum Chemistry named after M. Azizbayov. In 1990, she was elected as the Deputy Head of Azerbaijan “Istedad” Association and remained incumbent until August of 1994.
In August of 1994, Malayka Abbaszade obtained the opportunity to be the first Deputy Chairperson of the State Students Admission Commission, where she worked as a Chairperson from 2000 to 2016. On 12 April 2016, Ms. Abbaszade was appointed as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the State Examination Center (SEC), newly established public legal entity by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and is currently fulfilling this task.
Under her supervision, the activities in the following directions have been carried out in SSAC (currently, the SEC).
Since 1994, the scientific methodological seminars, which are functioning today, have been organized at the Commission in order to improve the test-designing methodology, as well as the format and content of tests. Well-known scientists, teachers of higher and general education schools, specialists of science and methodology centers have been involved in this process. During the seminars, the statistical data regarding the results of admission exams is analyzed and scientific-methodologically substantiated item (test) models are created.
“Abituriyent” journal was founded under the supervision of M. Abbaszade, now being one of the publications with a mass circulation. Since 1995, she is the head of the working group on scientific methodological analysis of the results of admission exams, the author of numerous scientific and research articles, published in the final issues of “Abituriyent” journal, and the coauthor of nearly 100 different textbooks and methodological materials, published as supplements to the journal.
Consequently, M.Abbaszade achieved to make the SSAC (SEC), as the first State Institution to apply Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the mass processes such as the testing and admissions, which was due to the programming of intelligent designs led by Maleyka Abbaszade for each phase of the examination.
In 1999-2000, the State Students Admission Commission (SSAC) was given the status of National Body to solve the Y2K (Year 2000) problem and Maleyka Abbaszade was appointed as the project lead. As a result, the challenge was successfully solved in Azerbaijan by the SSAC.
In 2000, M. Abbaszade was a National Coordinator of the “Assistance in Creation of Elections’ Informational Department” project, supported by the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Nations Development Program. As a result of the project, the State Automated Information System called “Elections” was launched, which was first put into application during the Parliamentary elections in the Republic of Azerbaijan in November, 2000.
In 2001, at the instruction of the President, for the preparation of National ICT Strategy, the SSAC was selected as the executive body and Maleyka Abbaszade was appointed as the National Coordinator of the Project. As an outcome of the project, “National information and communication technologies strategy for the development of the Republic of Azerbaijan” was approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated 17 February 2003. For the implementation of this National Strategy, being an official document, the National Action Plan was developed for the period of 2004-2012.
In 2003, at the initiative of M. Abbaszade, “My School” website (www.mekteb.edu.az) was launched. The website illustrates the analysis of the exam results of general education school graduates in each year of admission campaigns starting from 1995, and the exam results of admission campaigns over the past years as a whole.
In January 2003, she took the floor at The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tokyo and informed the international community about the state of ICT in Azerbaijan and the processes of preparation of National Strategy. In November 2003, she organized International Forum on “Development of information communication technologies and Electronic governance” in Baku. In December 2003, she participated at the World Summit in Geneva, held at the level of heads of states and attended by the President Ilham Aliyev.
Under her supervision, the SSAC established relations with various international institutions, namely, the “Educational Testing System” (ETS) of US, the International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA), the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe (AEA – Europe), the “National Institute for Educational Measurement” (Cito) of Netherlands, and others. In 1999, the International Association for Educational Assessment, having regarded the achievements made by the SSAC, admitted it as a member. Since 2000, the Chairperson regularly attended annual conferences of both the IAEA and the AEA – Europe and delivered speeches. In September 2007, she organized the 33rd International Conference of the International Association for Educational Assessment in Baku on “Correlation of the National Assessment Systems and the Educational Standards”.
In the Report “Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: What can be done” published by the International Institute for Educational Planning in 2007 and expressing the findings worldwide, the activities of SSAC in Azerbaijan were presented as a good example.
In 2005, Maleyka Abbaszade was included in the list of international experts for Educational Assessment, jointly published by the International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) and the UNESCO. In 2008, she was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the IAEA.
Within the cooperation framework, put forward by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, she represented Azerbaijan as an advisor-expert in the work of international initiative group “Organization of assessment for the development of education” at the international and national levels in June 2014.
In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, dated 23 February 2010, on the establishment of single electronic database to ensure carrying out the analysis of the impact of reforms in the field of education on the quality of education and making the statistical research reflecting the existing situation for realizing these reforms, the SSAC was tasked with the creation of “Student tracking” state electronic information system. Sound measures in this regard were taken under her supervision and the “Student tracking” state electronic information system has been functioning since 2012. All Sub-bachelor, Bachelor and Master’s Degree students, who entered higher and vocational education and training institutions, are registered. In 2012, in order to fulfil the works precisely and operatively regarding the conduct of graduation and monitoring exams at the general education institutions and the final assessment of learners at the complete and general secondary education levels (attestation), the “Pupil tracking” electronic information system was created. This system allows for conducting statistic and reasonable researches reflecting education indicators of pupils.
Maleyka Abbaszade was awarded the “Order of Glory” for the efficient application of modern technologies in the field of educational assessment in the Republic of Azerbaijan in accordance with the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated 25 February 2013. She is the author of nearly 80 research articles and 2 textbooks for higher education institutions.
She is a member of the New Azerbaijan Party. She has two children and five grandchildren.