SIX-YEAR SCHOOLING PROPOSAL

A1+
12:33 pm | July 30, 2009

Society

Co-chairman of the "League of Armenian Culture" NGO Ashot Aghababyan
is certain that the application of correct methods will develop the
mental abilities of students and teach them chemistry, physics, foreign
languages and other subjects within a couple of months. According to
him, every tenth student in Armenia is gifted with mental abilities
and it is simply necessary to identify them and develop those abilities
at a special center.

Ashot Aghababyan is a chemist by profession and has written many
books. He has been involved in identifying gifted students and
developing their mental abilities for fifteen years.

"Japan started enlisting its gifted children since 1945 and today we
see how much that country has progressed.

We have held special courses with gifted children in a number of
schools. Everyone praises this, but nobody really needs it. Everything
is based on intellect and repetition in our schools, while 98% of
schoolchildren don’t know a foreign language," said Aghababyan to
"A1+".

"Mesrop Mashtots knew what he was doing when he opened the first
school for gifted children who went on to become the founders of
the Golden Age," said Aghababyan and added that it is necessary to
create a concept for gifted students in the educational system, as
well as teach psychology and logistics in schools. There are some
problems with applying the method in regions. The NGO has addressed
individual businessmen and Ministry of Education and Science several
times, but in vain.

"We still haven’t received a reply from the ministry. They are not
rejecting, but simply "putting it aside."

Only the National Education Institute responded and said that there
is no expert for gifted children in Armenia," said advocate of the
NGO Artur Karapetyan.

We tried to clear things up from the Ministry of Education and
Science. Head of the Department of Extracurricular Education Arman
Ayvazyan was well aware of the method proposed by Aghababyan and has
even worked with the organization. "What they’re proposing requires
a lot of money. We presented this proposal to the government within
the Mid-term expense program, but the issue remains unsolved," he
said. According to him, the new method will allow students to take
the year-long course in one semester.

"It turns out that children must stay in school for 6 years, while
the instructional program is for one year. Besides that, students
with high capabilities in many schools set a good example for the
poor students and imagine what would happen if we took all those good
students away," said Arman Ayvazyan.