SOVIET METHODS OF TEACHING IN ARMENIA HINDER INTRODUCTION OF NEW ONES:
FOREIGN EXPERT THINKS

YEREVAN, JUNE 28. ARMINFO. Intermediate results of TACIS program
“Contribution to establishment of a united system of development of
professional education and learning in Armenia” were summed up in
Yerevan today.

Head of the program team Tomas Black informs journalists that both
officials and teachers are quite interested in development of education
in the country. He says that there are tasks which were not overcome
at once. Adjustment of Armenian teachers to the methods of teaching of
the Soviet system complicates application of new methods, Black thinks.

Armenian Minister for Education and Science Sergo Yeritsyan says that
training courses for teachers, business trips and permanent contacts
with foreign colleagues helped considerably progress the initiative.
However, he says, that it is impossible to use the experience of
foreign specialists in Armenia at once. To achieve a good result, it is
necessary to adjust the foreign experience to the national environment,
which was done by the program coordinators, Yeritsyan says.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Science, Education and
Culture Hranuysh Hakobyan says that development of educational system
in Armenia needs such factors as laws, finances, quality and contact
with the market. She says that during the last several years the
quality if education in Armenia has sharply decreased. If a qualified
specialist has its place in the country, a dilettante will think of
upgrading his qualification, Hakobyan thinks.

The program “Contribution to establishment of a united system of
development of professional education and learning in Armenia”
has been operating since 2004. The program’s goal is to elaborate a
national strategy of primary and secondary specialized education. The
pilot regime of the program is implemented in two regions – Lori and
Tavush. In particular, at 17 colleges. 30,000 studetns are involved
into the program.

It should be noted that of 104 professional technical colleges in
Soviet period of time in Armenia, only 26 were operating in early
2005, teaching only 2,200 students on 22 specialties. According
to data of the Ministry of Education and Science, Armenia lacks
qualified employees in the sphere of light industry, agriculture,
service as well as specialists in ore-mining sphere, diamond cutters,
builders and others.