Armenia to launch education excellence platform

The Institute of ancient manuscripts (Matenadaran) on Wednesday hosted public hearings on the national education excellence program, the first in the series of debates to be continued in all the regions of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The program will be implemented by the AYB Educational Foundation.

Specialists from the Cambridge University and the London University’s Institute of Education will assist in the implementation of the project, said Priest Mesrop Aramyan, the chairman of the foundation’s Board of Trustees.

“The Cambridge University has implemented reforms in 25 world countries. The project’s final goal is to have an internationally acclaimed educational platform and a community of teachers with international qualifications,” he told the participants of the meeting.

The priest said that the project is aimed to introduce an Armenian language curriculum corresponding to international standards (Ararat Baccalaureate) and train pedagogues who have appropriate professional qualification.

Describing the initiative as an attempt to raise teachers’ role in the society, Aramyan stressed the importance of making the profession materially attractive to direct the best human resources to schools.

“We are planning a close cooperation with higher educational institutions training teachers, so we will propose new initiatives in this directions in an attempt to elaborate new projects,” he added.

Anahit Bakhshyan, the National Institute of Education’s deputy director also attending the debate, said though she considerably
approves of the program she doubts if the state will really be able to cover the project’s costs

“Project implementation funding is the specified objective of the Ministry of Education and Science. This has to do with big figures, so I now asked whether the Government is going to fully cover [the costs], given especially the expected decrease under the 2015 [State] Budget. But I anyway believe Priest Mesrop; I trust his organizational and managerial skills, and I am hopeful he will be able to create a supra-Armenian [institution],” she added.