Armenia marks the Day of Knowledge

arminfo
2007-09-02 10:16:00

ArmInfo. Armenia marks the Day of Knowledge today – 35 thsd children
stepped across the school threshold for the first time in their life.

On August 31, the head of the department of comprehensive schools of
the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science, Narine Hovhannisyan,
said that this school-year the number of first formers is 3000-4000
pupils fewer than in 2005-2006.

She emphasized that these schoolchildren will be taught under the
12-year system, which was introduced in Armenia last year. Moreover,
unlike 2006, only the children, who were born in 2001, are to go to
school in 2007. "Last year’s experience showed that we were able to
overcome all the problems and fears with 6 year old children,"
N.Hovhannisyan noted. As for the text-books, in 2007 the first-formers
will get new text-books free of charge, except those of singing and
foreign language. Senior pupils will also get text- books for a certain
sum. A new program of 12-year education was worked out, under which 11
thsd teachers were retrained.