LAWS ON LEARNING: ASSEMBLY DEBATES CHANGES IN EDUCATION
- The National Assembly’s standing committee for education and science organized parliamentary hearings on Tuesday (October 16) focused on proposed changes to legislation dealing with public education. The need emerged in the wake of Armenia’s adopting a 12-year general education system. “We attach importance to three major conditions – education must be available, which proceeds from Article 39 of Armenia’s Constitution, which states that basic general education shall be compulsory. We must turn it into reality. The second major condition is the quality of education and the third is the continuality and consistency of education,” the committee’s head Hranush Hakobyan said.
She thinks that in the rapidly developing world where Armenia needs to be competitive school must ensure its pupils are clever and competent. And the continuality and consistency of education will be put into service for the purpose of having a three-level school.
The main goal of the hearings was to discuss the reforms that have already been started in the education system. Principals and teachers of state-run and private schools who gathered in the parliament’s meeting hall drew lawmakers’ attention to what they considered as omissions in the law “On Public Education” and came up with new proposals.
Addressing the audience, Hakobyan said: “Don’t think that you cannot speak freely if Education Minister Levon Mkrtchyan is here. Feel free to voice your opinions.”
The education minister said that the draft law leaves political speculations aside, and if something is not justified in the future, changes can be made in the law.
“The public should be confident that it has a legislative package that leads the current generation in the right direction and opens a door for the generations to come. In this respect, in the near future the government will present its vision and timetable of education in 2015, where the education system will be build on two major principles and it is from these principles that it proceeds in this law,” Levon Mkrtchyan said.
The discussions around the law on public education began in 2005.
“The broad discussions among school teachers and principals made it possible to submit the draft law to the National Assembly for discussion. The whole system seems to have already been given legislative regulation, beginning from pre-school education, and ending with post-higher school education, and only the largest field – general education – remains open,” Deputy Education Minister Bagrat Yesayan said.
According to Mkrtchyan, the law will increase the role and significance of the teacher in society.
“We proceed from the criteria of the civilized world. It is very important for a country to have education quality based on two solid principles – the first is a general education with a strong school of natural sciences. The system of higher education is built around it and on the basis of this school with a strong foundation of natural sciences we try to develop another major issue, which is the need to have a national school,” he said.
Principal of Yerevan’s Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex Ashot Bleyan estimated that there are differences and problems that needed to be given legislative solutions at this stage of reforms but were “avoided in a cowardly manner” in the law.
“One can raise the issue as to what new freedoms are there in the law for students, teachers, schools, parents whose responsibility and initiative in terms of education quality will increase,” Bleyan says. “I think the current law on education already provides solutions to these. But unfortunately it is not laws that govern our behavior today.”
Bleyan advocates real, drastic changes.
Meanwhile, Hakobyan says the reforms in the education system are carried out slowly, but thinks the draft law will smooth out a number of problems.
Head of the Development Programs Department at the Ministry of Education Robert Sahakyan was a member of the working group. According to him, the top priority of any law is to regulate the sphere, to establish clear rules so that every participant of the process has a clear idea about his or her obligations and rights.
“I think the law will bring in certain clarity in the sphere and will create favorable conditions for further developments,” he says.
And Bleyan says that the law does not specify whether there will be room for vocational education in the 12-year general education sphere, or priority will be given to advanced general education.
Heritage faction member Anahit Bakhshyan positively assesses in particular the change in the Law “On Public Education” according to which a contract will be signed between schools and pupils.
“It will be a legal document by which requirements will be presented to both sides. I consider these contracts important because they will settle differences between parents and school principals,” the former school headmistress says.
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
Angered by a US congressional committee’s support of a proposed resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy. The strong US ally, and ...COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
7
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech this Independence Day did not draw me back to the times of his tenure, but as many others, to a much closer time – the coming presidential elections. And to the election campaign ...KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
1
Gegham Sergoyan, 21, took an oath to the Republic of Armenia Army to serve his country. While serving that oath, he was shot dead by an officer for laughing. On April 15 Sergoyan was watching TV at his ...HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER IN HAYASTAN: ASSEMBLY INVITES APPLICANTS FOR 2008 INTERNSHIPS
“When I come to Armenia, I feel at home. And here, I listen, and I yearn to go back to the stories of my family. This country I grew to love, but did not truly understand why. Because, at first, I loved ...CAR CULTURE ICON: FIRST DRIVE-IN COMES TO ARMENIA
When twilight covers the city the unattractive and solitary area adjacent to the huge bulbs production plant in the outskirt of Yerevan has been transforming into one of the romantic spots in the capital. ...MISSION ARMENIA PRESENTS: SOCIAL HOUSE FOR ELDERLY TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN
Amid hundreds of the new residential buildings in the city under construction, a three-floored building on 88 Sevak Street is not remarkable. Still it is probably the only current construction in the ...CUTTING INTO TROUBLE: ILLEGAL LOGGING DECREASES, BUT FORESTS STILL IN DANGER
Nazeli Vardanyan, chairwoman of the Armenian Forests NGO says the illegal logging of forests in Armenia has decreased twice as compared to previous years. While the amount of logged wood counted to annually ...DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
Sometime within the next month, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection, through its new minister Aram Harutyunyan, will designate use of the Teghut region for mining exploitation. (Harutyunyan was appointed ...FREE?: INTERNATIONAL PRESS MONITORS SAY ARMENIA HAS SHOWN “UNPRECEDENTED” PROGRESS IN MEDIA FREEDOM; LOCALS DISAGREE
Despite the fact that the prestigious human rights watchdog Freedom House this year ranked Armenia among countries with “not free” media, and where freedom of speech is regressing, another international ...LAWS ON LEARNING: ASSEMBLY DEBATES CHANGES IN EDUCATION
The National Assembly’s standing committee for education and science organized parliamentary hearings on Tuesday (October 16) focused on proposed changes to legislation dealing with public education. ...FAITH FIGHT CONTINUES: JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TARGETS OF HATE ATTACKS
Jehovah’s Witnesses say violence against them continues despite the attention of local and international organizations who oversee human rights abuses in Armenia. The five cases reported last year (see ...POINTS FOR EFFORT: FOOTBALL OFFICIALS PRAISE ARMENIA’S SOCCER DEVELOPMENT
The top executives of international and European football’s governing bodies praised the recent progress in Armenian football as they paid a two-day visit to Yerevan early this week. Sepp Blatter and ...BEATEN IN BRUSSELS: ‘RED DEVILS’ DASH ARMENIA’S HOPES FOR FIFTH SPOT IN THE GROUP
Football Three second-half goals from Belgium eclipsed Armenia’s otherwise promising performance in Brussels on Wednesday and put an end to their four-game unbeaten run in Euro-2008 qualification that ...
BIRTHING PAINS: FEE ON BABY DELIVERY REMAINS AN ISSUE OF CONTROVERSY IN ARMENIA
KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
DECISION TIME: US CONGRESS CLOSES IN ON POSSIBLE HR 106 VOTE
CAR CULTURE ICON: FIRST DRIVE-IN COMES TO ARMENIA
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
AQUA DANCING: SQUARE’S FOUNTAINS RETURN WITH AN EVEN MORE GRACEFUL DANCE
DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
HOSPITALITY WITH CAUTION?: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT YEREVAN
Richard Giragosian and John Hughes
- 1870 Birth of Atabek Khnkoyan (children's writer). He died in 1935.
- 1960 Death of writer Teegran Dzeetoonee.
- 1974 Creation of the Union Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery (USSR Ministry of Public Health) in Yerevan.
- Տրամաբանական խնդիրներ, գլուխկոտրուկներ, հանելուկներ
- Մաթեմատիկա՞... համեցեք
- ինչպես կարդալ հայերեն MySql ից
- Շուտասելուկներ
- Գրաբարի դասեր
- Հայկական անեկդոտներ – Armenian jokes - Армянские анекдоты
- Գուշակիր, թե ով է նկարի փոքրիկը
- Տնտեսագիտության արագացված կուրսեր
- Գուշակիր պատմության հերոսին
- Network Journal for Men
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.