ARMENIA IS OBLIGED TO MOVE TOWARDS EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, LEVON MKRTCHIAN IS CONVINCED

Noyan Tapan
Jun 13 2006

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Henceforth RA Ministry of Education
and Science will work more openly and transparently by organizing
press conferences once during every 10 days. As Minister Levon
Mkrtchian said at the June 13 press conference, their task is that
the Ministry should not be treated only as a body holding entrance
examinations. According to him, the main goal of the department’s
policy is bringing the Armenian educational sphere in correspondence
with the international standards. L.Mkrtchian said that considerable
regress has been registered in this issue currently. As he stated,
formerly the Armenian educational system was compared with the
European countries, while now it is compared with the Middle Asian
countries. “Armenia is obliged to move towards the European educational
system,” the Minister mentioned.

L.Mkrtchian said that they should work out a mechanism where the system
will not be affected by the change of officials as party direction
is destructive for a system. According to him, complex and integral
changes need to be made in science. It was mentioned that the problem
of development of science is not so much financial as is connected
with right management.

According to L.Mkrtchian, there is still much to do in the sphere
of 12-year education as they “just pulled out 10-year education
and turned it into a 12-year education.” According to the Minister,
parallel with the transition to a new educational system they should
reduce the years of study at higher educational institutions. It
was mentioned that the quality of 12-year education should lighten
the burden of the institutions of higher education. In L.Mkrtchian’s
opinion, an integral system of giving marks for knowledge should be
also introduced. And the credit system, according to him, should not
be introduced at once, but gradually.