THE MONEY ISSUE; Why Azerbaijani Youth Steer Clear of Science

In Soviet times, Azerbaijan had reached quite a high level of scientific development. Our little Republic with only 7 million citizens at the time had a huge Academy of Sciences with thousands of students who had completed graduate work and earned their Master and Doctorate degrees. Some had gone on and been appointed as professors and academicians. There were hundreds of scientific research institutions, educational scientific centers and universities, which existed primarily in the capital Baku, although there were a few centers in Ganja [known as Kirovabad during the Soviet period], Sumgayit and various other cities. If you visit many Azerbaijani scientific institutions, you might think that you were in a cloister -- surrounded by nuns. Enter the building and you'll find mostly women; there are very few men. In many scientific research institutions, it's impossible to find even one young man -- only women, women, women everywhere! Does this mean that girls love science more than guys do? Of course not! It simply means that the salary offered to scientists is so low that married men who have the responsibilities of their families can't even think about working there. In the Soviet times, all workers received the same salaries, no matter if they were lazy or ambitious; whether they worked hard or hardly worked at all. The projects in all scientific institutions moved forward only because of the passion and driving force of specific individuals. Therefore, if there were 250 employees at a scientific institution, you could be sure that only 20-30 of them worked seriously, 30-40 worked more or less satisfactorily, and 180-200 worked very poorly or hardly worked at all. The Soviet state with its huge budget and endless inflow of money from the natural resources of Siberia, Central Asia and the Caucasus was able to afford to support this great crowd of lazy people -- at least for awhile. But today, Azerbaijan as a small country has no economic cushion and can't support redundant workers without threatening the survival and normal development of its state.