ADMITTANCE COMMISSION ASSURES
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
22 July 05
Recently it has become a tradition that on the eve of the entrance
exams the republic admittance commission members meet with the
applicants and their parents to discuss the entrance exams. The July
16 meeting was not an exception either. The rector of Artsakh State
University, the chairman of the admittance commission Hamlet Grigorian
first introduced the members of the commission. Three members are from
the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport: Slava Asrian is the
secretary, expert Arkady Vahanian is the chairman of the commission
in charge of appeals, and Sos Arzumian. Two members are from the
president’s administration, Georgy Petrossian, advisor to president,
and Lyudmila Farsian. The last member is the vice rector of Artsakh
State University Artem Abrahamian. The chairman of the commission
assured that the staff is experienced and has had almost no faults in
the previous years of work, and this year they will work in the same
manner. After the introduction of the staff H. Grigorian proceeded
with a practical conversation. He said the applicants who will get
satisfactory scores will not necessarily fail. They can choose among
four specialties, and if they fail in one of them, they can try for
the other. This measure is intended to prevent young men who fail
to enter a university or find a job from leaving the country. At
least the university will keep them in the country for another 4 or 5
years. Of course, this does not mean that all the applicants with low
scores will be admitted. The applicants who did not do well at school
will have very little chance. This year for certain specialties the
competition for entering the state university is tougher than in the
previous years. For certain specialties 2.5 applicants compete for 1
place, whereas in certain specialties there are fewer applicants than
places. The chairman of the commission cited the example of the newly
opened department of political science. Although there is a lack of
political scientists in the country, there were no applicants in this
specialty. H. Grigorian pointed out the need for order during the
examinations, especially addressing to the parents. The commission
allows parents to enter the hall and monitor the exam, and often they
disturb the applicants with their conversations and prompting. If the
applicants need prompting, the commission will do this by writing a
formula or a numerical value on the blackboard but never help a single
applicant. At the exam in mathematics the applicants are allowed to
have a calculator and compass. Mobile phones are not allowed. On the
day of examination the applicant must turn up at 8 o’clock in the
morning with a passport and the examination leaflet. The journalists
are free to comment the examinations. The commission invites them as
observers. After the results are announced, the applicants can have the
copy of their work and if they disagree to the mark, they can appeal
to the commission. H. Grigorian noted that the coaches often give a
higher mark to their students to show off their work, so he asked the
coaches of the applicants to sign under the copy of the work after
they check it. In practice, however, the marks of the commission and
the coaches coincide. Although, there are also cases when the score
is not correctly calculated. In these cases, of course, the mistake
is corrected. H. Grigorian said, although entering the university is
not at all difficult, especially, as they said, they admit students
with low scores as well, there are people who present themselves as
middlemen and extort money from parents for admittance. H. Grigorian
called the parents to be careful not to be cheated. It is much
difficult to enter a university in RA. The applicants from Karabakh
who wish to study in Yerevan are mainly excellent students, and there
are several applicants for one place. The newly appointed minister of
education, culture and sport Kamo Atayan also addressed the present and
said that hopefully the admittance which is the most important event
in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh in summer will be transparent and fair.
SVETLANA KHACHATRIAN. 22-07-2005