A regular discussion on “Draft Education Development Strategy 2030” was held with development partners: the discussion was organized by the RA ESCS Ministry in cooperation with the UNICEF and the EU Delegation to Armenia.

Representatives of Embassies operating in Armenia, international and donor organizations, as well as civil society, which implement various programs in the field of education, participated in the meeting.

The participants of the discussion were welcomed by the UNICEF representative in Armenia Christine Weigand, noting that the main priority of the organization is access to quality education for all children She stated that the document submitted by the ESCS Ministry summarizes the positive and negative aspects of the education sector, a huge analytical work has been carried out, which is the basis of the program. Christine Weigand assured that the program will be a common vision that will help achieve the goals in the field of education by 2030.

ESCS Deputy Minister Arthur Martirosyan thanked the participants for participating in the public discussion of the key document in the field of education. “Following the principles of participatory democracy, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Armenia, we organize public discussions in various formats to gather the opinions of citizens and the primary beneficiaries of education. The document always needs to be refined, therefore, we attach importance to all the considerations that have been made and, especially, the opinions of development partners. The priorities outlined in the document will help development partners to direct more resources in their direction by 2030 and continue the dialogue and efficient cooperation to achieve the challenging goals set,” noted Arthur Martirosyan expressing his gratitude to the UNICEF and the EU Delegation to Armenia for organizing the discussions, as well as for financial assessment and support on other issues.

Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Armenia Frank Hess, in turn, noted that the draft document provides an objective assessment of the education sector, expressing hope that valuable suggestions would be made during the discussion.

After the welcome speeches of the discussion organizers, the RA Deputy Ministers of Education and Science Arthur Martirosyan, Zhanna Andreasyan and Karen Trchunyan presented the general process of the education development program, strategic directions, key provisions of priorities, as well as the schedule of activities according to their coordination fields.

They expressed satisfaction for the discussion of the document with the development partners and consideration of their observations, since the analyses, diagnostics of the situation, and objectives in the program are the result of many years of joint work not only of the ESCS Ministry but also with partners.

The general process and schedule of the development strategy were introduced by ESCS Deputy Minister Arthur Martirosyan; the main qualitative indicators of the upper level and the targets and principles of the 2022-2030 Strategy were presented by Zhanna Andreasyan - for preschool, general, primary and secondary vocational education; and Karen Trchunyan - for higher education.

After the reports of the speakers, an interesting discussion unfolded, during which the participants thanked the representatives of the ESCS Ministry for participating in the discussion of the project and underlined that a rather advanced document was being introduced. They made a considerate number of suggestions and observations, and also asked questions to the ESCS Deputy Ministers. The issues, in particular, concerned the establishment of a more general national assessment system, a new school management system, teacher remuneration, inclusion of a social component, lack of teachers in some subjects, teachers’ education, the development of critical thinking in schools, schools of border communities, universal inclusive education, providing quality education for national minorities, clarifying forms of informal education, internationalization of higher education and other issues.

Summing up the discussion, Deputy Minister Arthur Martirosyan thanked those present for the successful and constructive discussion. He assured that all the significant suggestions and observations will be considered during the revision of the document.

Arthur Martirosyan once again reminded that the program is posted on the Unified Platform for Publication of Legal Acts’ Drafts (https://www.e-draft.am/projects/4013/about) calling on all citizens and stakeholders to submit their proposals and comments on the document by March 1.