Andreasian Discusses Teacher Incentive Programs

In the context of teacher remuneration, Minister of Education and Science Zhanna Andreasian addressed the voluntary certification process: “The results of the appeals are already unchangeable. More than 9,600 teachers successfully passed the certification, including last year’s results. Teachers who underwent voluntary certification make up about 31% of teachers, which means every third teacher has participated in the voluntary certification. This is a very good indicator and shows that the voluntary certification system has fully established itself and continues to develop,” said the minister, adding that teachers who undergo voluntary certification will receive a salary increase starting from January 2026.

She mentioned that meetings with teachers are continuously held to improve the system. Zhanna Andreasian also touched upon the state funding directed towards teacher incentive programs, noting that while 266 million drams were allocated for additional teacher incentives in 2019, this allocation has increased to 15.2 billion drams by 2025, marking a 1163% growth. According to Zhanna Andreasian, this is not just a numerical indicator but represents a real opportunity for thousands of teachers.

In this context, she discussed existing programs, particularly the additional allowances for small rural schools and teachers of natural sciences and information technologies, voluntary certification, and the new ranking mechanism. The Minister informed that around 20 billion drams has already been allocated for these purposes in 2026.

Zhanna Andreasian emphasized that an important indicator is also the number of new teachers entering the public education system, which reflects the effectiveness of the Government's policy. She reported that in 2024 and the first half of 2025, over 4,000 new teachers have entered schools, with about 80% of them being under 45 years of age. “This shows that the Government's policy aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the teaching profession yields concrete results. People who may not have considered teaching before or tried their luck in other fields are now returning to school or entering the system for the first time, thus strengthening our teaching staff,” said Zhanna Andreasian, expressing gratitude for this effort.