We had unprecedented year in terms of internationalizing education, says minister

Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan on Saturday summed up the achievements in his sector, describing the past year as unprecedented in terms of internationalizing the Armenian education.

At his end-of-year new conference, the minister particularly highlighted the numerous international educational programs the country joined, pointing out to the unprecedented number of medals (20) won by students of secondary schools in different school Olympics. Mr Ashotyan praised the efforts towards re-opening many institutions of higher learning, including the branch of the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Yerevan.

He further addressed the achievements in each specific area. “Five secondary high schools launched a pilot IT training project,” he noted. “We have submitted a bid for introducing it at the London Global Forum, and the report was accepted as an exchange of the Armenian experience. We continued expanding the national song and dance curricula in 50 regional schools and 50 schools of Yerevan. Inclusive schools’ number sharply increased, and today we have 4,700 students studying in the system. Some  33 pre-school institutions opened across the republic in 2015, attracting 1,100 children.”

The minister added that 18 universities received qualification certificates allowing them to offer government-funded tuition also after 2018.

“Over this period, we had the first ever European-accredited institution: the Yerevan State of Architecture and Construction university which received a Franco-Spanish accreditation. That implies recognition of diplomas in the said area. Also this year, Armenia hosted the Bologna Ministerial Conference, which demonstrated Armenia’s potential in the sphere of education,” he added.

Ashotyan particularly highlighted the importance of the National Education Excellence Program, which he said is still under consideration.  

“I am hopeful that the program will receive the National Assembly’s approval by May 2016;’ it has to outline the education development prospects in the ten years to come,” he added.