PROBLEMS OF ARMENIAN EDUCATION DISCUSSED AT PAN-DIASPORA CONFERENCE
HELD IN ANTELIAS

YEREVAN, August 13 (Noyan Tapan). Over 70 delegates from 18 hubs of
the Diaspora participated in the Pan-Diaspora Conference on Armenian
Education held in Antelias on August 5-7. The Pan-Diaspora Conference
was held under the patronage of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the
Great Cilician House. Hranush Hakobian, Chairwoman of the RA NA
Commission on Education, Science, Culture and Youth Affairs, and Levon
Ananian, Chairman of the Armenian Writers’ Union (AWU), represented
Armenia at the conference. The AWU Chairman told NT’s correspondent
that reports entitled “Current Situation of Armenian Education by
Statistic Data and Estimation of Results of Armenian Education”,
“Prospects of Armenian Education”, “Role of Children’s-Junior
Literature in Armenian Education”, as well as other reports were heard
during the conference.

According to Levon Ananian, “the conference showed that the primary
problems in the educational-cultural sphere are put before the
Diaspora”. That’s why participants of the conference considered that
it is necessary to pay special attention to the development of the
children’s-junior literature, because the aesthetic education should
start from childhood. Levon Ananian mentioned that the work should be
carried out in order that the children’s books should be published in
Armenia both in Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian. The problem of
the closing of the Melgonian Gymnasia of Cyprus was also touched upon
during the conference.

According to Levon Ananian, this anti-national policies should be
stopped. “Our national structures and foundations resolve their
problems in narrow circles, meanwhile problems agitating the Armenian
people should be submitted for open discussion,” said the Chairman of
the Armenian Writers’ Union. Levon Ananian said that the problem was
arisen during the conference to establish the Pan-Armenian Educational
Center in Beirut and the Open University in Aleppo. “This conference
is a fine simulus, which should contribute to the Pan-Armenian forum
to be held in Tsaghkadzor on August 27-29, because if there is the
Armenian school, there is the Armenian nation, if there is no Armenian
school, it means there is no Armenian nation. And the school in the
Diaspora is the stronghold of the Armenian preservation,” Levon
Ananian concluded.