2010 DRAFT STATE BUDGET ENVISAGES EXPENDITURES OF 95.5 BILLION DRAMS ON SPHERE OF EDUCATION

Noyan Tapan
Nov 3, 2009

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, NOYAN TAPAN. By the 2010 draft state budget of
Armenia, expenditures on the sphere of education, including expenses
on maintenance of the sphere’s state machinery, will make 95.5 billion
drams – as compared to the actual expenditures of 108 billion drams in
2009. The current principle was used for programming the expenditures:
education expenses must make up 3% of GDP. Of the envisaged sum,
90 billion drams are current expenditures, 472 million drams are
expenses on the maintenance of the state machinery of the sphere, and
about 4 billion drams are capital expenditures. 2 billion out of 95
billion drams are allocations for the continuous credit programs. First
Deputy Minister of Finance Pavel Safarian stated this at the November
2 joint sitting of the National Assembly Standing Committees.

Accoridng to him, 1.6 billion drams allocated for reforms in secondary
education make up an important component of capital expenditures. 439
million drams is envisaged for repairs of educational facilities.

By the 2010 draft state budget, 65.6 billion drams will be spent
on comprehensive education considered a priority in the sphere of
education. These expenditures have been reduced by one billion drams
or 1.5% compared to 2009. Allocations for salaries in comprehensive
education sector amount to 50.13 billion drams, which will enable to
increase the average monthly salary (including additional payments)
of teachers to 116.6 thousand drams. The 2010 expenditures were
calculated based on 380,188 pupils – against 399,673 in 2009. Like
in 2009, the teacher/pupil ratio makes 14.56.

7.52 billion drams is envisaged for higher education, which represents
a decline of 48.1 million drams or 0.6% on 2009. The decline in
expenditures is due to a drop in the number of pupils.

9 billion drams envisaged for auxiliary services to the educational
sphere will be spent on free textbooks for the pupils of elementary
classes and on payments for textbooks for the children from vulnerable
social groups. 698 million drams of the indicated sum will be allocated
for computers and Internet services, thanks to which 944 out of
approximately 1,400 Armenian schools will have Internet connection.

P. Safarian said the government intends to provide all schools with
Internet connection in 2011.

The draft budget envisages providing 70 million drams and 30 million
drams, respectively, for educational literature and accessory
materials of Diaspora Armenian institutions and for property of
Javakheti schools.

The draft state budget was calculated based on the settlement exchange
rate of 376 drams per dollar.