Concerns Raised Over Removal of Great Armenian Writers from Literature Curriculum

Anna Kostanyan, a member of the Armenia Enlightened faction, has made a statement regarding reforms in the education sector. She specifically noted:

“In this complex socio-economic and pandemic situation, discussions are being held online on crucial issues that imply strategic changes in the education sector. It is understandable that it is difficult to hold face-to-face discussions now, but it is unacceptable to discuss educational and subject standards projects via Zoom with limited opportunities for expert expression. Radical changes are being made that provoke extreme perceptions and emotions from parents, students, and especially the teaching community.

Are the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Science actually guided by objectivity, and are discussions sufficient? I constantly receive signals and serious concerns from teacher communities that there is insufficient time and opportunity for discussion on each subject standard every day, resulting in public discussions being purely formal and excluding everyone's opinions and suggestions.

I'm also curious about who the specialists involved in the working groups for the development of these standards are. Do they have a direct connection to schools, how much have they engaged with the real problems within schools, and how significant is the foreign experience implemented in the reform of local public education?

I am aware that there are plans to remove the study of our great writers from the subject of Armenian literature on the grounds that the language is difficult to comprehend and inaccessible for school-age children in the 21st century. I believe that this way, we will directly push out Armenian classics and gradually forget about them. This is a very sensitive, important issue that requires objectivity, and it must be handled with the utmost care. Ultimately, what is the end goal of making such a change?”