General Approaches Included in History Textbook Will Not Be Revised: Andreasyan

Smbat Hovhannisyan's authored 7th grade history textbook has distorted historical facts, with the author frequently presenting his observations as historical truths. This was announced by Lilit Galstyan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction of the National Assembly during a Q&A session with the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

“There are numerous complaints from parents, educators, and professionals regarding that textbook created under the new general education guidelines. The textbook also contains several grammatical errors,” emphasized the deputy.

In response, the Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports, Zhanna Andreasyan, reacted firmly, noting that the noise has not ceased since the beginning of educational reforms and that it is more of a targeted and orchestrated campaign.

“Yes, there are ideological changes in the textbook. We have repeatedly stated that the greatest value in our school system, around which education should be built, is the state itself. The main goal of teaching history is to develop historical thinking. History is a multi-layered phenomenon that requires combining different sources, analytical thinking, and making independent judgments—elements that are notably lacking in our system, which has been inundated with a 'hurray patriotism' sentiment for years, making it quite difficult to liberate our schools from this,” announced the minister.

Andreasyan urged everyone to reconcile with the ongoing noise and reiterated that the general approaches included in the history textbook will not be revised, as they form the core of educational reforms.

At the same time, she noted that technical errors and factual inaccuracies will be corrected and addressed in the second semester of public schools.

It should be added that many provisions in the 7th grade history textbook authored by Smbat Hovhannisyan have sparked outrage among the Armenian public and specialists. On social media, individuals have expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the distortion of facts and initiated a petition demanding the book's withdrawal from circulation.