The President signed an important decree: what will change in schools starting from the 2026/27 academic year?

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree introducing a fundamentally new approach to financing state general education institutions.

This was reported by President.az.

According to the decree, starting from the 2026/27 academic year, financing of state general education institutions from state budget funds will be carried out on a phased basis using the per-capita funding principle. This model, widely used in developed countries around the world, assumes that the amount of allocated funds directly depends on the number of students in a specific educational institution. This approach is designed to increase the competitiveness of schools and stimulate the improvement of education quality.

In state general education institutions financed on the per-capita principle, an increase coefficient by individual levels of general education will be applied to the amount of annual education expenditures per student by types of general education institutions.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been instructed to approve and report to the President within one month on the following:

- the amount of annual education expenditures per student by types of general education institutions financed on the per-capita principle;

- the rules for state budget financing of state general education institutions operating under this model, as well as the procedure for applying the increase coefficient by individual levels of general education to the amount of annual expenditures per student.

The Cabinet of Ministers has also been instructed to resolve other issues arising from this decree.

The Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan is required, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, to determine for each upcoming calendar year the list of state general education institutions subject to per-capita financing from state budget funds, as well as the number of their students.

The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan will ensure the financing of measures arising from the implementation of this decree from state budget funds.