Universal education management standard to take effect in Armenia 

ArmInfo.  A unified standard for the management of pre-school, educational and extracurricular institutions will be established in Armenia.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia will discuss  amendments to the Law "On Education" in the second and final reading  at the plenary session on May 7.

As Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the  Republic of Armenia Araksiya Svadjyan noted in her speech, the draft  law establishes the legal, organizational and financial basis for the  activities of educational institutions. Particular attention is paid  to the requirements for teaching and administrative personnel, as  well as the mechanisms of state financing and control. The new  standard, which will be applied to the heads of pre-school,  educational and extracurricular institutions, will be in effect for  five years. The project will also improve the quality of control over  education, curricula and financing. Most of these institutions will  receive funds from the state budget of the country, despite the fact  that many of them are on the balance sheet of local government  bodies.

There are about 400 music and sports schools and creative centers in  Armenia, where about 100 thousand children study.

There are about 5 thousand teachers in them. In 174 sports schools  alone, there are over 2 thousand coaches and teachers. The new  standard will be extended to all these institutions. The description  of the innovation will be quite large-scale, it will allow to form a  list of teacher positions, which will help to understand what  services they will be able to provide to students.

Svazyan also reported that schools in small towns will be transformed  into community centers that will operate in the status of educational  complexes, including preschool, school education and informal  education for young people. In addition, a unified procedure for  certification of the management of educational institutions is being  introduced. Persons with higher education, who have been engaged in  teaching activities in the last 10 years and have at least three  years of experience in a management position will be able to receive  a certificate. The package also presents cases of certificate  revocation.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the  Republic of Armenia Zhanna Andreasyan noted that within the framework  of the voluntary certification program in extracurricular education,  launched in 2023, 465 teachers and coaches took part in it last year  - twice as many as in the previous year.  206 specialists who passed  the certification receive bonuses from the state budget in the amount  of 60-100 thousand drams. The project covers 12 sports and 8 areas of  art, including music education and fine arts.  According to the  minister, this helps to solve the problem of attracting specialists  to the field of extracurricular education and support communities  where the local budget is limited.