We Need to Make a Very Fundamental Decision: Nikol Pashinyan

The salary of teachers is also determined by the number of classes in which they teach. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a government session, addressing the changes taking place in the education sector.

According to the Prime Minister, how fair is it to require the same level of knowledge from teachers in small classrooms as is required from those in larger ones?

“We need to make a very fundamental decision: for whom is the school? Sometimes, I get the impression that the school is a workplace for accountants, businesses, cleaners, and even teachers. We need to answer these questions with a 'no.' The school is for the child. The perception that we have created a school as a workplace is a wrong understanding; perhaps we need to create a construction repair workshop for that,” he said.

Pashinyan noted that he has recently been confronted with calls to keep village schools open. “This emphasis is mainly made in villages where schools have very few students. We are building a new school because no one has said that the village school should be behind the mayor's office. We need to build roads leading to schools, acquire transportation means to take children to school and bring them back in the evening. The perception that the school is part of the village infrastructure is a wrong understanding. In many villages, they say if the school closes, the village will empty, but in reality, this is all about the development of the village and not the opposite. We never address the fact that a child, until they go to the army, has no experience interacting with an environment larger than 20 people, and we take them out and place them in an environment of 500 people, and many do not realize what this situation may lead to.

Today, we must acknowledge this fact - the school is not for bakery workers, jam, or bread producers; it’s not for electricians or plumbers; it’s even not for teachers or principals; and it's also not a voting station. The school is for the child,” said Nikol Pashinyan.