SCIENCE IN ARMENIA – PASSING AWAY
Armen Vardazaryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 29, 2008
Armenia

And not absolutely for financial reasons

At its annual general meeting convened on April 25, the RA National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) again revealed the framework of the problems
that prevent the native science from overcoming the inertia inherited
from the Soviet times and reaching the level of the scientific
requirements of the modern world.

The discussions organized within the frameworks of the annual general
meeting followed the well-known logic of mutual requirements: "give
money – do work" – a dilemma that has become characteristic of all
the meetings held between the NAS leadership and the country’s top
figures. However, if the things were unchanged as much as the first
part of the requirements was concerned, there was surprise in store
for some people with regard to the second part.

In his speech delivered at the NAS annual meeting, President
S. Sargsyan not only expressed the authorities’ sincere desires for
making every possible effort to contribute to the development of
the native science but also revealed all the problems that need an
urgent solution, problems that prevent the development of science. The
overwhelming majority of those problems have emerged and continue
deepening as a result of the physical and moral depreciation of the
management of the system.

It is noteworthy that our academicians who, unlike ordinary scholars,
receive honor payments in large amounts just by virtue of bearing
titles and not for certain scientific work, complained about
insufficient funding at this annual meeting as well. They again
indicated certain percentages of the sums allocated to the sphere
of science from the Gross Domestic Product and compared them with
other countries.

But neither the report of the NAS Chairman nor the subsequent speeches
properly substantiated what exactly the National Academy of Sciences
and first of all, its leadership are doing to contribute to the
development of science. The major part of the activities receiving
basic or thematic funding are nothing more than applications for
extorting money, and they bear very little relationship to the issue
of elaborating problems which are of urgent importance for the country.

As to where their results (if any at all) are going to be applied,
and what benefits such researches will bring to our country and
society remains unknown.

Instead, they voice reproach in the address the reformers, who pursue
a goal to "destroy" the academy, and call on them to preserve the
national value. Such speeches delivered in the most recent annual
meeting of the National Academy of Sciences give rise to a strictly
actual question: what is, after all, the practical role of the National
Academy of Sciences as a national value, i.e. do its functions serve
as a "museum sample" or do they have a practical role?

And if, nonetheless, the NAS has a practical significance i.e. serves
for the solution of the problems faced by our country and society,
to what extent does it fulfill this function? It isn’t as though any
morbid organism always had healthy cells in addition to the dead ones.

The fact that the National Academy of Sciences is currently a museum
value in terms of the top of its "hierarchical structure", i.e. the
chairmanship, is beyond any dispute. However, it still has a practical
significance due the work of so many long-suffering scientists who
represent its branch institutions; unlike the titled scholars who
do nothing and only make demands, these people continue working with
meager salaries. That is, instead of the latter, complaints are being
made by the former, and the same situation is repeated every time.

In the most recent annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences,
President S. Sargsyan also revealed the flagrant imperfections of
the system and demanded that the NAS chairmanship find specific
solutions. However, the whole problem is that this is not the
first demand made by the authorities and it’s time different public
and private organizations as well as individuals who, apart from
demanding money, are also capable of advancing a clear-cut concept
and an implementation strategy for the modernization of science,
were also involved in the process of proposing such solutions.

It’s time for the newly-established State Committee on Science
to initiate open, public and sincere discussions over the ways of
reforming the native science and bringing it in compliance with the
requirements of the 21st century.

Science is not absolutely a closed sphere belonging to a separate
monopoly.

The succession of the steps to be implemented in the course of the
coming years should be clear and acceptable for the government which
is attentive to the needs and demands of society. Only in that case
can the increased funding envisaged for the development of science
answer its purpose, i.e. lead to obtaining scientific results.

The first task, as declared by the president, is to establish an
Institute of Independent Expertise in Armenia. This will make it
possible to assess a scientist’s work not based on a degree or title,
but from the point of view of the specific importance his/her activity
for state and society.

The second task which is no less important is to suspend the process
of granting a cornucopia of scientific titles as this has become
a loophole for avoiding compulsory military service and simply
demoralizes the young people desiring to do scientific work.

And the third important task is to recover the broken ties between
science and education. It first of all demands to reform the
primitively commercialized educational system and only thereafter
start the process of merging the two systems.

It’s obvious that time no longer waits for the solution of the
problems which include but are not limited to the ones mentioned
above, because the scientific system of Armenia is falling behind not
only the world’s leading countries but also our direct neighbors,
and has turned into a museum system which takes pride in its past
accomplishments and lives with the memories of the past.