Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touched upon the educational reforms at the meeting with the residents of Aragats community, Armavir province. He said that salaries of teachers who undergo a qualification would increase. Applications will be accepted from May until the attestation process takes place in November; the salaries of certified teachers will increase by 30-50% according to the points gained.
“In the future, we will make a relevant decision, and the qualified teachers will receive credits in the future through certain mechanisms, depending on the real results of their students, and not on the grades in the paper. They will receive points; the teachers’ salary will continue to increase through this mechanism, regardless of government decisions. The salary of a teacher who has proven their high qualification will increase. For the teachers who will not be able to provide high qualifications, we will either help to improve their professional training, or we will help them to be re-qualified and move to other jobs”, the Prime Minister said.
He referred to the unsolved problem of studying in remote villages for decades. Due to the staff shortage, a distance-learning program is being introduced, with highly qualified teachers remotely merging with distant schools and conducting classes, which will provide them with additional salary.
“We are thinking about moving the educational cycle of schools in such remote villages a bit. Their classes may start a little late and end later so that, for example, we can send highly qualified teachers to work during the summer holidays. If a teacher goes to spend a month with their family in that village, he/she may communicate live with the children, whom he/she teaches at a distance,” Pashinyan said.
He stated that there are many problems in universities, related to both physical infrastructure and the content.
“We have an idea. Most of the universities are located in downtown Yerevan. We want to put them up for sale, get the money and build a city out of Yerevan, which will be a university academic city, where our scientific, teaching potential will be concentrated. Students studying there will have an opportunity to go from reformed schools to reformed higher educational institutions,” the Prime Minister said.
