Education should not become elitist, Armenian President says

The Minister made this statement at the meeting with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

According to the Minister, the resulting base makes it possible to open centers of excellence.

“On one hand, reforms in public education are aimed at elimination of elitism so that these centers of excellence, as you often stated, become the engine that pushes the entire system forward. Naturally, this process will bring necessity of complex changes in higher education,” Levon Mkrtchyan said.

In this regard the Minister pointed out the issue of high schools and transfer from higher education to science and job market.

Touching on innovative educational programs, President said that those centers should cover a larger area.

“Ararat Baccalaureate is brilliant, and centers of excellence are brilliant, but they need to increase both coverage and engine power. You are right to state that we cannot make education, especially public education, elitist. Yes, there must be some education institutions that differ from the rest,” the President said.

Serzh Sargsyan attached importance to retraining of teachers as well.

“We must change the entire procedure of retraining teachers. Of course, the teachers who keep up with modern standards should differ from the rest both by attitude and salary, and their work should be exemplary. I believe that we ought to find out which marzes lack such education institutes and direct our efforts on their construction,” President Sargsyan said.

Serzh Sargsyan instructed to form an expert group and prepare main points of reforms in higher professional education in six months, which, if carried out, “in the near future will allow Armenia to have education institutes with a well-deserved place on the global map”.