Essay Titled 'When They Walk, They Walk, They Walk...' in School: Political Propaganda or Mistake?

During the citywide Olympiad for the 8th-grade Armenian language subject, children were assigned to write an essay on the theme 'When they walk, they walk, they walk...' According to information obtained by ‘168 Jam’, such an incident occurred during the territorial phase of the Olympiad held at Yerevan's number 56 primary school, but the same scenario was observed throughout the city's territorial phases.

The media reported: 'This is an unprecedented situation, as it turns out that the patriotic themes previously assigned during Olympiads, which had been heavily criticized by the opposition, are being replaced by the imposition of party-political propaganda. What is a 13-14-year-old child supposed to write on this topic, and what image do the authors of this 'epoch-making' idea want to convey? Is this how the authorities envision depoliticizing the educational system? By the way, this is how things were done during the Soviet years, when schoolchildren were forced to learn lessons reminiscent of 'Lenin in a hut.' It would be 'logical' if the theme of the republican round essay concerned topics like 'stealing speed cameras' or covering them with underwear, or besieging the National Assembly building on October 2.'

On this topic, AuroraNews spoke with Anna Stepanyan, head of the Education Department of the Yerevan Municipality. She stated that the incident was a misunderstanding.

'The titles of the essays were assigned by the teacher. In order to maintain the confidentiality of the territorial phase of the Olympiad, no one looked in advance at the chosen titles. Of course, we had several discussions after the incident. The teacher explained that in that title, she saw a motivation to observe the children's gaze directed towards the sky. I believe we should have controlled this. There is no political subtext here; it was merely the teacher's choice,' she said.

According to Stepanyan, after reviewing the essays, discussions will take place to clarify whether the children, after all, saw a political subtext or not.

Anna Stepanyan assured that political propaganda is not conducted in schools. Specialists will be given special instructions to exclude such topics in the future. Regarding the replacement of patriotic themes with party propaganda, Stepanyan noted that children have always written essays on patriotic themes.

'Patriotic education has always existed in schools; it is included in the educational curriculum. We are not only not authorized to remove this but also consider it our duty to provide patriotic education,' said the head of the Education Department.