"NUMBER OF DIASPORA ARMENIAN STUDENTS DIMINISHING"

Panorama.am
19:40 25/09/2007

"The number of Diaspora Armenian children in Armenian schools is
diminishing," stated Hratch Tadevosyan, head of the education
ministry’s department of Diaspora education, at a meeting with
journalists.

"Diaspora Armenian children will have problems in the future, as
their culture and education differs from other citizens," he added.

Tadevosyan stresses that the problem is current. "It is necessary
to develop a unified program for these schools, which will contain
educational materials, teaching methods, and textbooks," he said,
adding that all this is on the agenda. There are now eight textbooks
foreseen for use by Diaspora Armenian students.

According to his statistics, there are now 150 schools, which give
classes one day a week, operating in different countries of the
Armenian Diaspora, and this number is increasing. The speaker noted
that the education of Diaspora Armenian youth is the foundation of
maintaining Armenianism, adding sadly that there are many countries
in which Armenian youth cannot speak Armenian at all.