Mkhitar Hayrapetyan Proposes to Reassess Teacher Requirements in Public Schools

The President of the Chess Federation of Yerevan and Member of Parliament Mkhitar Hayrapetyan has shared several proposals regarding the preliminary version of the 2021 state budget draft for the budgetary programs of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports on his Facebook page.

His first proposal concerns the reassessment of the requirements for working as a teacher in public educational institutions, with the aim of simplifying the procedure for entering the teaching profession. He suggests considering new approaches such as granting pedagogical qualifications to individuals with higher professional education through short-term specialized courses aimed at acquiring pedagogical knowledge and skills.

Additionally, it is proposed to allow individuals studying at or already having higher professional education to teach in public schools on a contractual basis, with the condition of obtaining a pedagogical qualification within a specified time frame. This initiative aims to enhance motivation for teaching in public educational institutions and to rejuvenate human resources in the field of education.

Hayrapetyan's second proposal is to recognize distance education as an accepted form of organizing mainstream educational programs in a hybrid format. This way, students will be able to choose to attend certain subjects through remote learning methods. In this context, credit system tools will start to be applied. Students will have the opportunity to select subjects from other educational institutions collaborating with their own, either remotely or in person, and accumulate credits for these subjects that will be recognized by their primary educational institution.

He has also proposed the idea of dual or joint educational programs, where learners are students of two or more educational institutions. This proposal aims to provide quality education to students, regardless of their place of residence.