Education reform progress and challenges discussed at Armenia-EU education dialogue conference

The meeting was opened through an expo where nine organisations, including from the diaspora and information technology sector, presented their education programmes and initiatives that are contributing to the implementation of the new education standard and reform.

For the second time, the policy dialogue platform is used by the Ministry, EU and UNICEF to convene the stakeholders and development partners to discuss progress, key challenges, g learn about the findings of the latest sectoral analysis, and draw out solutions through dialogue, shaping effective ways to coordinate resources and next steps across the sector.

As Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan noted in her opening remarks, it is important to take time to engage in constructive dialogue on the progress of reforms. ʺIt is symbolic that we meet today in Tavush, as we started the piloting of the education standard and the reform in Tavush. It was a difficult time, as the world was going through the pandemic, trying to understand how to ensure education continuity, it seemed advantours to start reforms during that period. Nevertheless, we were able to jumpstart the process, which was thanks to the partnership and hand-in-hand work with the support of the European Union, the World Bank, and other partners.ʺ

The Minister presented the range of the Government programmes related to teacher policy reforms, including teacher attestation, salary increase, and continuous professional development aiming to raise attractiveness of teaching career. She noted that, as a result of those interventions, around 3000 new teachers were recruited last year.

ʺPeople responded to the implemented policies, and we have seen an increase in interest towards teaching careers. It's particularly pleasant to see that 60 per cent of the newly recruited teachers are young people below the age of 40, while 56 per cent of them are working in rural areas. This shows that the specific regulatory measures that we have taken are working.ʺ

“The European Union has invested a lot in the education of Lori, Tavush and Shirak, as well as of Syunik, and we see this as an important investment in human capital development and strengthening of Armenia’s resilience. We have supported STEM laboratories, invested in reconstruction of secondary schools and preschools, as well as in non-formal education and extracurricular activities. In all these directions and beyond education, it’s been very important to continue engaging young people, so that they have a chance to play a significant role and contribute to policy-making. The policies that we are designing today will affect their world tomorrow,” emphasized the EU Ambassador to Armenia Vasilis Maragos, stressing the importance of partnership in the sector.

“What defines success in education has fundamentally changed nowadays - it's about helping children develop their identity, cultivate the cognitive, social and emotional skills they need to actively shape their societies. It’s important to balance new approaches required for this, while continuing to provide foundational knowledge and competencies. Armenia has made good progress in both directions, also noted in the Concluding Observations by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF remains committed to supporting ongoing education reforms in Armenia to address remaining bottlenecks, also by facilitating Armenia-EU education technical support,” noted Acting UNICEF Representative in Armenia, Silvia Mestroni.

Participants heard from Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Araksya Svajyan, who presented the progress of reforms regarding early childhood learning and general education. During the past year, the Ministry has put together and matched mentor preschool institutions with mentee institutions that have received a series of training and technical support through online and offline formats to embark on the implementation of the new education standard.

In the past year, the Ministry has certified principals of preschool institutions on several occasions, which has positively affected the quality of management in this sub-sector. In parallel, private preschools have been licensed.

A number of changes have been implemented in general education, ranging from organisation of education at schools to grading mechanisms, development of textbooks, technical capacity development and other directions. In Tavush marz, graduation exams were organised at each level of education with the new format that, among issues, contributed to galvanizing the creative capacities of students. A number of schools are also empowered to organise student clubs and implement project-based learning that has positive influenced teachers’ workload and students’ motivation.

The development of new textbooks has been of critical importance to the Ministry. According to the Deputy Minister, the new competitive selection process has brought about a high increase in the number of organisations interested in the process, contributing to increased competitiveness. A key issue has remained with regard to the development of textbooks for high schools, such as the history textbook. 

A new system of teacher training was implemented that hinges on the assessment of needs of teachers that will make the process more needs-based and targeted. Around 1500 teachers are trained each year, now also encompassing pedagogical-psychological topics, such as teaching without violence and bullying. 3903 teachers have already used the voluntary attestation system and been qualified to receive higher salaries.

Together with UNICEF, Ayb Educational Foundation, and with the support of the EU, the Ministry has launched a programme on education management and leadership for 60 candidates for the position of the school principal. With UNICEF, the Ministry is piloting a programme to transform remaining special schools into Resource Centres to advance the inclusion agenda. Besides early childhood education and general education, participants also discussed issues about vocational education and training, higher educaiton, as well as learned about the preliminary results of the Rapid Education Diagnosis of the education sector conducted by ETF. The Ministry invited the participating organisations to provide feedback on the revised action plan of the Republic of Armenia Education Development Strategy until 2030 which is available on the e-draft platform.