TOL: Reluctant Reformers | Armenian Directory & News

RELUCTANT REFORMERS
by Anush Babajanyan

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uage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=346&NrS ection=3&NrArticle=20961
Nov 6 2009
Czech Repubic

A shakeup in Armenia’s schools was supposed to mean more lively
classrooms and a streamlined curriculum, but some habits die hard.

YEREVAN | Maritsa Abajyan was supposed to receive a set of colorful
children’s furniture this year for her second-grade classroom – just
one of the results of education reforms designed to create a more
playful, interactive environment for the country’s youngest pupils.

Instead, she was given just a few pieces and decided to give them away
to a colleague, leaving her charges to study at the same old-fashioned,
gray tables placed in traditional rows.

Yet the setting seems appropriate, given Abajyan’s own difficulties
in embracing the new system. "I find the former strictness of
classes correct," the 41-year-old says, dismissing the notion of
more creative, alternative activities. "The child should be strictly
within the borders of the lesson. If you don’t work that way, the
child doesn’t work."

"They learn the new methods, but they don’t start using them at once,"
Suqiasyan said. "They teach using both the traditional and the new
methods. Methods such as the group and interactive methods are great.

They’re good for developing the students’ critical-thinking qualities."

IMPATIENCE

Many parents remain dissatisfied with the current transition period.

"They broke down the old system without preparing the new one
thoroughly," says Lusine Vardanyan, the mother of a fifth-grader in
Yerevan. "The teachers still act the way they used to. They shout at
children and even parents; they turn up late to their classes." She
views the current situation as an incomplete mixture of the old
Soviet-era education system and the present one. And her son, Zhirayr,
still hasn’t received the new books required for the 12-year system.

"They said it would be easier for students to study," Vardanyan said.

"Now it’s only harder. The books haven’t been changed; class hours
haven’t been reduced. Moreover, they added new subjects, increasing
the difficulty."

Education officials counsel patience and note the progress already
made, saying students do have less class time, with first-graders
attending 20 hours instead of 23. Students in the upper grades already
have six or seven classes a day instead of eight, and the new system
should facilitate the addition of new subjects to the curriculum,
they say.

The ministry’s website also reports that 65 new textbooks were printed
in 2008, in time for the current school year, covering topics such
as technology and the environment.

"The new mathematics book for fourth-graders is wonderful," math
teacher Karapetyan says. "It’s made things easier and explains
everything in detail."

But the textbooks have not met with universal approval. "They’ve made
everything much more difficult," complained Anna Avetisyan, a geography
teacher from the northern city of Gyumri. "The geography book for the
seventh grade is really hard. So is the book for natural sciences for
the fifth and sixth grades – the children don’t understand it at all."

END OF THE TUTOR PERIOD

Some educators have started to speculate that another part of the
reforms – the restructuring of schools – will eventually lead to the
disappearance of private tutors, who benefit the students who can
most afford them.

Under the new rules, schools must separate their years of study into
primary, middle, and high schools. Before there was no division;
the students simply studied for 10 years. Now they leave after middle
school and go to a different, specialized high school, more in tune
with their interests and professional ambitions. The supposition
is that these schools – 48 of which opened their doors this fall –
will provide their students with the knowledge necessary to enter
university afterward, eliminating the need for tutors.

Suqiasyan, the high school principal, hopes that soon her students
will be able to enter universities without studying with tutors.

"Little by little the private tutor will disappear," Suqiasyan said.

"Parents already feel that soon they will not have to spend those
additional funds."

Julietta Weiss is a tutor of mathematics and physics who helps students
prepare for their university entrance exams. She sees little change
in the number and quality of her students since 2006, when the new
system began. "My situation is even better than before," she said.

"Because schools are unstable, parents are worried. So they bring
their kids here."

Weiss, who tutors five students from Suqiasyan’s school, is not ready
to call it quits quite yet. She says tutoring is a response to the
difficulty of university entrance exams, noting that even parents who
send their children to top college preparatory high schools also send
them to tutors.

Although already a high school student in the new system, Ani
Vardanyan will start studying with tutors this year, preparing for
university exams.

"Some of my classmates have left school," Ani said. "But they didn’t
do it to go to a specialized high school. They left to find a school
where they won’t have to study too much, so they have time for studying
with tutors."

Hovhannisyan acknowledges the current challenges but contends it
would have taken too long to organize all aspects of the system before
launching it.

"It could have lasted for years if we prepared for it beforehand and
then began it," she said. "We had the objective of moving on together
with the rest of the world."

Many teachers also remain hopeful that the system will eventually
bring large-scale improvements.

"Everything is new, and naturally it causes confusion," Karapetyan
said. "But once one gets used to it, it is a wonderful system."

"The teacher’s job is difficult," she added. "But they will get used
to it, and students will get used to it. The new method isn’t bad."

Story and photos by Anush Babajanyan, a freelance journalist and
photographer in Gyumri and editor of TOL’s Patchwork blog.

A student studies a textbook on the history of the Armenian Apostolic
Church.

By now, Abajyan’s students should be receiving a different type of
education, and she should be a different type of teacher. But three
years into the changes brought about by Armenia’s shift to a 12-year
education system, more in line with European standards, many teachers
like Abajyan remain entrenched in the old ways. If previously the
problem was a lack of trained teachers, now the issue is that some
of the trained teachers have not bought into the system they were
taught to implement.

HAND-HOLDING

Some say the new system’s requirement that a teacher adopt an
individual approach to students can be unrealistic. "In the case
of 12 students, which is how many students I have, you can do it,"
Abajyan says. "Everyone speaks in class every day. But in the first
grades we have 33 students [per class]. And with 33 students it is
impossible to hold their hands and take them through the class."

Abajyan is also not a big fan of the decision to make Wednesday a
designated relaxation day for 5-year-old first-graders, feeling
that the break stunts their development as students. "Honestly,
I don’t honor that day, on my own initiative," she admits. "I study
mathematics with them on those days. I think that’s the right thing
to do, and we’ve completed the curriculum just in time."

Abajyan attributes the achievements of the 12-year system in Europe to
cultural differences. "There’s a big difference between our children,"
Abajyan says. "Their children are more liberal, more independent."

Jemma Karapetyan, a teacher at another Yerevan elementary school,
is 10 years older than Abajyan but appreciates some of the reasoning
behind the reforms.

"I consider the group discussion method a good one," said Karapetyan,
a veteran mathematics teacher. "But because of my age, I can’t bear
noise. Young and enthusiastic teachers can make this system work
well." She also worries that the changes, in which 5-year-olds go to
school instead of kindergarten, have placed a greater burden on the
younger ones.

"We have to make the classes easier so that they can grasp them,"
Karapetyan says.

The Education Ministry says it will not negotiate with reluctant
teachers.

"Starting in March we will implement teacher certification,"
says Narine Hovhannisyan, the head of the ministry’s department of
general education. "I think these issues will be solved through the
certification process. Teachers who don’t measure up will [have to]
leave schools."

Hovhannisyan adds that school headmasters are responsible for the
implementation of the new teaching methods. "The principals should
want their teachers to have good qualities. It is also an issue of
the school’s reputation."

Bella Suqiasyan, the principal of a Yerevan high school, approves
of the new methods but says that teachers in her school have not
fully adjusted.