The RA ESCS Minister Vahram Dumanyan had a video meeting with the Head of the World Bank Armenia Office Sylvie Bossoutrot. The meeting was also attended by the ESCS Deputy Ministers Artur Martirosyan and Zhanna Andreasyan, as well as the representatives of the World Bank.

Welcoming the World Bank delegation, Minister V. Dumanyan highly estimated the cooperation with the Bank, emphasizing that the Ministry is interested in the continuation of the implemented programs, and is ready to develop that partnership.

“Unfortunately, the pandemic has had its negative impact on the education system around the world. In addition, our country went through a terrible war, and we are once again convinced that education is definitely at the core of the country's security and development. Unfortunately, a significant part of Artsakh's cultural heritage is in imminent danger, so we are committed to the preservation of these universal values, also through the efforts of progressive humanity,” noted the Minister and stated that higher education and science are inseparable and special emphasis will be given to the Natural Sciences. According to V. Dumanyan, the reforms in the field of general education, which is the basis of education, will also be ongoing.

Sylvie Bossoutrot, head of the World Bank Armenia Office, congratulated Vahram Dumanyan on his appointment as Minister, noting that the World Bank has been Armenia's partner in education for many years, starting from early childhood to higher education. According to the head of the Armenian Office of the World Bank, one of the jointly implemented programs is coming to an end, and it is necessary to outline directions and priorities for further cooperation. Sylvie Bossoutrot expressed confidence that Armenia can best realize its potential in the field of ICT, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.

“Armenia's human potential is enormous and it should be used for the benefit of the RA economy and society. Despite all the difficulties, Armenia must stand on its feet, continue to live and fully realize this potential,” stated Slivie Bossoutrot.

The representative of the World Bank congratulated Armenia on the recently published results of the international assessment of Mathematics and Natural Sciences for 2019, noting that our country recorded an improvement of 42 points, which, according to her, is huge progress.

The ESCS Deputy Minister Artur Martirosyan touched upon the successful implementation of the “Education Improvement” project in Armenia implemented jointly with the World Bank, and the EU-funded program in Armenia ‘’EU4 Innovation”, as a partner emphasizing the high professionalism of the Bank's employees. He also presented the activities on the development of the education strategy for 2021-25.

In her turn, Zhanna Andreasyan referred to the activities under the above mentioned two programs, in particular, the development of subject standards, their further implementation, extensive teacher training, change of textbooks and the issues of establishing corresponding infrastructures. The Deputy Minister emphasized the importance of founding pre-school institutions, major renovation of high schools, the activities of founding laboratories in universities through the "Competitive Innovation Fund". She also underlined the importance of another important cooperation in the context of the pandemic - the program of shaping the model of preschool services and training of educators in the conditions of the pandemic, as well as the establishment of distance learning laboratories in 101 regional educational institutions, where a subject is not taught due to the absence of a teacher.

At the end of the meeting it was agreed that the directions of cooperation will be outlined more comprehensively during the further working discussions.