Many Armenians are worried over the new 12-year Armenian education system and raises a couple of issues: “What will they teach them for 12 years that they taught for 10 years?” “We’ll graduate from school at 18 and they’ll take us to the army, what about university?” “Why do we need two kinds of first grade classes”, etc. Some people look at a 12-year education as “miserable”. In order to get a clearer image of this educational reform, I interviewed head of the school education department of the Ministry of Education and Sciences Narine Hovhannisyan.
– The 12-year education starts with two types of first grade classes. How did that idea come up?
– We did that so that the child could easily enter the first grade after kindergarten. The junior first grade class is foreseen for children born between January 1 and July 1, 2000. The criterion is easier. Students study for three hours each day. They look at pictures, tell stories and play games. The kids learn the Armenian alphabet during the whole year and the graduation ceremony is in April. The senior class studies for an hour. The senior class will move at a faster pace and will end the Armenian alphabet by the end of December. So, the kids learn the alphabet by the end of the first semester. Besides that, the first grade students not only overcome the problem of reading and writing, but also the age factor.
– Do you have teachers that can transfer the students from kindergarten to school?
– There are no special teachers. They are the teachers with experience. Six year-olds have kept entering the first grade for the past ten years and the teachers are familiar with that. Now things are easier for the teacher. At the time, 6 and 7 year-old used to study in the same class and the teachers wanted to separate the two age groups. Now things are better for them. They’re still working with the A and B groups, but with different programs.
– It seems as though society isn’t too pleased with this reform.
– Society keeps on contradicting things. First, they say that 6 year-olds are too young to go to school, they want to play and need to sleep. But then they changed their minds and this year we got a lot of applications for accepting 5 year-olds in school, but no 5 year-old child has been admitted to school based on the law.
– There are subjective changes in the higher grades. Rumor has it that physics, chemistry, biology are going to be taught under one subject-biological sciences.
- The biological science taught in the 5th grade is the same biology. When the child studying in high school picks the humanitarian subjects, we don’t give the student physics, chemistry, and biology to study and just teach biological sciences as a whole where studies those subjects. However, that book isn’t ready yet and the ministry is still discussing. Of course, for students in the biological sciences group, they will study each of those subjects separately.
– Will these changes affect private schools?
– The 12-year system must be applied in private schools too, however it doesn’t differ when it comes to the contents.
– The 10th, 11th and 12th grade students are considered high school students that move to certain groups and get ready for college admission. Is this the only advantage of the new system?
– The ministry plans to have high school students study some of the subjects studied at the university. For example, if the student is getting ready to get accepted into a university and must take Armenian language for the first semester, he will have the opportunity to get credits and not take that class at the university by studying it in high school. It is worth mentioning that high school is the best because the student won’t have to study with tutors. The student will learn all he needs to know in school. After three years of English, the student won’t need to study with a tutor.
– Does the school have teachers who can teach the same way as the tutor?
- We are currently thinking about the cadres. The teachers that will be able to teach the students based on the knowledge that they have will stay. If the schoolteacher isn’t able to teach, then the school may invite teachers from the university. But we’re certain that we have good schoolteachers. Teachers that don’t really teach are gone or will be gone once this system gets going.
– Today, there are colleges that teach the same thing as universities and many parents send their kids to those colleges when they get to the 8th grade. What will become of those colleges now?
- Colleges will be considered high school and will prepare the given student for university admission in three years.
- The 12-year education system is a cause for alarm for parents of male students. After the male student graduates from school at 18, he has to get ready to go serve in the army. That’s why parents what their kids to go to school starting from age 5. How will the ministry solve this problem?
– When the male student graduates from school at 18, he has the chance to get accepted into a university. The 18-year old boy doesn’t go to the army until he doesn’t get his graduation certificate and he will get that certificate after taking a series of exams. Upon receiving the certificate, the boy either gets accepted or doesn’t get accepted. This has been orally agreed between the Ministry of Education and Sciences and the Ministry of Defense. It’s just that in this case, the student doesn’t have the second chance. However, it’s possible to see some reforms in the military law and 19-year old boys will go to the army.