- JAMnews
- Yerevan
Voluntary certification of teachers in Armenia
5,000 teachers in Armenia this year expressed their desire to undergo voluntary certification. Despite the unprecedented activity of school teachers this year, the Ministry of Education does not consider these figures to be satisfactory.
“There are 37,000 teachers in the republic, of which only 13 percent have passed voluntary certification,” the department reports and reminds that it is still possible to apply for participation until July 15. The next stage of certification will be organized in September.
In any case, a large number of applications compared to previous years, apparently, caused the statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan has already said several times that education is a priority for his government: “The time will come when there will be no teachers in schools who have not passed certification.” But the prime minister has not yet named specific dates when this will happen.
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Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Araksia Svajyan said that this year certification will be held in all subjects, and class teachers will also be able to participate in it.
“Those who do not work anywhere now, but have a pedagogical education, will also be able to participate in the certification. If they get high scores, they will be able to get a job in schools and receive a high salary,” she stressed.
320 of the 5,000 people who applied for participation in the assessment are not currently working in schools.
Voluntary certification of teachers was first held in Armenia in 2021. Only teachers in grades 7-12 participated in the pilot program. They were given the opportunity to participate in testing in only seven subjects. Then the scope of the program expanded. At the same time, the salaries of teachers who passed the certification increased by 30-50%, depending on the results.
The aim of the program is to encourage the professional development of teachers, to promote the improvement of the quality and effectiveness of teaching. The Ministry of Education also expects high salaries to attract male teachers to schools.
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According to the decision of the government, teachers who have a secondary specialized education and have not received a university diploma will be able to work in schools until August 2023. This applies to 1300 people. However, they will not lose their jobs if they take part in a voluntary assessment.
“If the required threshold of knowledge based on test results is provided, they will be able to continue working in schools,” Svadzhyan said.
According to the deputy minister, those teachers who failed to pass the test satisfactorily last year can also apply for participation in the attestation. He says that to help them, 4 universities of the country conduct preparatory courses.
Araksia Svajyan said that 700 out of 760 teachers who did not receive enough points during last year’s attestation have applied again this year. And now they are taking training courses.
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Mathematics teacher of secondary school No. 29 Naira Kosyan has already passed a voluntary certification. She is pleased that, “finally, the frozen, outdated system of paying teachers’ salaries has changed.” In general, she positively assesses the certification process, but believes that “the procedure can be improved”:
“In particular, 60 assignments for certification are too many, and it is difficult for a teacher to complete them in three hours. To test the teacher’s knowledge, 20 well-thought-out tasks are enough. In this case, he will have time to check his work again.”
Naira Kosyan says that certifications have changed the education system itself and existing stereotypes, many teachers have realized that “the requirements are different now.” In her opinion, teachers should not stop there, they should constantly develop, “even if the state did not put forward such requirements.”
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Tigran Sardaryan, a teacher at the Special Physics and Mathematics School, agrees that the attestation program needs to be improved. In addition, he wonders whether the increase in salaries stimulates the flow of new teachers to schools, whether it improves the quality of education.
“The program has been implemented for two years now, but there is still a shortage of teachers in the country. Still, the salary and work of a teacher are not attractive to young people. The fact that only 13 percent of teachers expressed a desire to participate in the certification may mean the following: some are not confident in their knowledge, some simply do not believe in all this, while others think that they have a couple of years left until retirement – they will work them out and leave, ” Sardaryan believes.
https://jam-news.net/voluntary-certification-of-teachers-in-armenia/