Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport and introduced the newly appointed Minister Zhanna Andreasyan to the staff of the ministry.

The Prime Minister thanked the former Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vahram Dumanyan for his work and expressed confidence that he will invest his potential for the development of our country and the field of education. “Mr. Dumanyan was appointed as minister in a very difficult period and during this period he carried out very important work. I think that during his tenure, we made many important decisions in the field of education, and we have also adopted the strategy for the development of the field of education until 2030, which is, in fact, the road map of our activities. Of course, it does not give answers to all questions, but at least it highlights a certain framework about our vectors and things to be done,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

Wishing success to the newly appointed Minister Zhanna Andreasyan, the Head of the Government noted. “Of course, Mrs. Andreasyan is not a new person in the ministry. more than 2.5 years ago she was appointed Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and during this time she coordinated the work in the field of general education, where, I think, we have perhaps the most visible and tangible success. I think that Mrs. Andreasyan’s role in those achievements should not be underestimated. I consider it very important that we can ensure the legacy and continuity of the work done during this period. We need a new charge, a new pace, and I am sure that Mrs. Andreasyan will ensure that dynamic. I am also sure that Mr. Dumanyan will support Mrs. Andreasyan and the Ministry by all possible means, so that the programs we have drawn and created together will be successfully realized.”

The former Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vahram Dumanyan thanked Prime Minister Pashinyan for his confidence in him and joint work, summarizing the work done during his tenure. In particular, he said, “Mr. Prime Minister, I clearly remember that on November 23, I was appointed at your proposal and assumed the ministry during the period of demonstrations. In the first 8 days, we made efforts together with Mrs. Andreasyan and solved that wrinkle wonderfully. Then there was noise in terms of textbooks: Armenian history, literature, and the history of the Armenian church. Again, together with Mrs. Andreasyan, we solved that problem. The university system was in crisis, there were incomplete tenders, universities had turned into party cells. Today, we have solved that problem with united forces and reorganized exclusively all boards of trustees, all tenders were held. We have developed a new procedure for university admission, and with your support we have made changes to the law on mandatory service. In the field of science, we changed the procedure for awarding scientific degrees and titles. We have started some optimization processes together with the National Academy. In the field of culture, Mr. Prime Minister, you have been presented with a new model of museum management. I want to speak about the dismantling of the booth located in the Republic Square, on the initiative of our and our partners, the Prosecutor’s Office and the City Hall, and with your support, our square was quickly restored with its architecture. And finally, we registered 300 medals in sports this year, which is an unprecedented result: the maximum in our history was 222, this year – 300. And, of course, all this was done in the Ministry on the basis of “one for all, all for one” principle, as well as as a result of joint discussions with stakeholders. I want to loudly confirm that I will unconditionally support Mrs. Andreasyan, I am always ready. It is a very understandable and very good choice for me, my colleagues also know – it has been said many times, it is not a new word, and I think no one has any doubt that nothing has changed, we serve the Republic of Armenia together.”

Zhanna Andreasyan, the newly appointed Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, thanked the Prime Minister for his high trust and former minister Vahram Dumanyan for their joint work. “Mr. Prime Minister, first of all, I want to thank you for your trust. It is a very big responsibility, because today, more than ever, we all realize how important it is to adequately respond to all the challenges and problems that exist in our country’s education system, in the field of culture, in the field of science, and in sports. I will not exaggerate if I say that the vision of the future that we will have depends on it and we will also lay the foundations here. Those works in a conceptual sense, as you mentioned, Mr. Prime Minister, are mostly implemented, and the State Program for the Development of Education until 2030, the stratgies of sports and culture currently presented for public discussion, the policy in the field of science, the Governmen’s Action Plan, which has clear targets sets before us until 2026, makes it clear what we should do. The task of our everyday work must be to meet all these targets, to do more and at the same time to be flexible enough to respond to new challenges and also to do all the work that will be required to respond to all the current problems on the way to our long-term targets and goals. I assure you on behalf of our entire team that the Ministry will make maximum efforts to make these targets a reality, high-quality and visible, first of all, for the society and the people,” Zhanna Andreasyan said.

Referring to the activities and priorities of the Ministry, Prime Minister Pashinyan said, “When we were creating the ministry with this structure, naturally there were different opinions and there was pessimism. As a result of the work, I have made sure that this structure of the ministry corresponds exactly to the vision and purpose that we have before us. As a result of various compromises, we named the Ministry the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, but my perception is that this Ministry is the Ministry of Content of the country, and there is no exaggeration in this at all. Indeed, I associate the greatest mission of designing the future with this ministry. There is a lot of talk about the fact that there are, for example, ministries of the future in different countries, many colleagues or even experts say that maybe we should create a ministry of the future. In my opinion, we created the Ministry of the Future long ago, because the future cannot exist without fundamental investments and changes in the field of education, content, physical infrastructure.

Our attitude is that we should spare nothing for this area. Of course, resources are limited in our country, it is clear that there are many operational priorities, but I am glad that we have shown political will, we are implementing such big projects and will continue to implement them in the field of education, science, culture and sports, considering that it is the most important investment in the future. You mentioned the programs in general, Mr. Dumanyan. we have greatly increased the funding of science, we have implemented salary increases, we have also introduced a system of grant programs, the process of voluntary certification of teachers, which is one of the most strategic programs for me. At this stage, we should work individually, introduce everyone, ask them, help them, support them, so that they are also encouraged and take advantage of these programs, because, after all, those programs should not remain on paper. It should become a real life, which should have an impact on the right to education of our children, and later on the socio-economic development of the country and all spheres.

I would like to emphasize the work towards the construction of 500 kindergartens and 300 schools. Saying school we mean 3 mandatory components that are inseparable: physical infrastructure, content infrastructure and professional potential. Today, the conceptual and strategic planning of our work in these 3 directions has been fully implemented, it remains to work so that every year until 2026, we will be able to implement the program. I say 300, but we should be able to do more”, said the Prime Minister, attaching importance to also the program of building educational complexes in rural areas.

Nikol Pashinyan referred to the process of creation of the State Fund for Talent Support. “The State Fund for Talent Support is already receiving flesh and blood, and my vision of its work is as follows: it should be formed from both state and non-state funds and should be managed by non-state mechanisms, but at the same time it should be accountable to the government and the public. The mission of this fund will be to seek, find and support talents from all fields. Moreover, it can be even from the preschool stage, and we must guide all talents to personal and nation-wide victories, because our assumption is that all children and people are talented without exception. This should be our strategic perception. Another thing is that we must first create a common field for the discovery of everyone’s talent and understand who, how and where to support, so that an acceleration of this talent also occurs.

I want to highlight the plan for establishing the Academic City, which again, for us, is absolutely not a matter of a building. It is, first of all, a matter of content, a project of integrating our science and education, a strategic plan to make our educational services competitive in the international arena.”

The Prime Minister also referred to the problems in the cultural sector and noted that there are hardships here as well. “We need to change or modernize or make our ideas effective in the preservation and management of cultural monuments, because 2 days ago I was just walking along Buzand Street, and it was very hard for me to see that we cannot get out of that state of stagnation, and as a result, our historical and cultural monuments appear in a worse condition. It always seems to us that we are maintaining, doing nothing, but what is happening? we don’t assess the impact our delays in decisions have on historical and cultural monuments every month. We say that it is better for that building to collapse by itself, to disappear, to be destroyed, let’s not make a decision not to cause noise, not to be criticized. This approach is no longer tolerated. We must show a new approach to the management of historical and cultural monuments, monuments in general. Sometimes it seems that we leave that question pending just for one thing, not to cause noise, not to be criticized. But every day these monuments are collapsing, literally every day.

The last time I was in the same place was a few months ago, it is even visually obvious that a process of destruction is going on in the center of the city of Yerevan in relation to our most important historical and cultural layers. We have to make decisions here, we have to take responsibility and not avoid criticism, because this situation is also comfortable: no one is criticized, no one approaches, we don’t even notice that garbage piles are forming there, we all live peacefully. Let’s overcome this understandable aspiration to live in tranquility, especially since, unfortunately, it is not available to us individually or in terms of our country, and in the modern world it is still necessary to conquer the right to live in tranquility. Unfortunately, we have not yet conquered that right, perhaps because we have preferred today’s peace to the uncertainty of the future. I think that, on the contrary, for the sake of the certainty of the future, we should also be able to sacrifice today’s tranquility, today’s comfort”, the Prime Minister concluded.