Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired a consultation on the process of the impementation of the construction, renovation or overhaul of 500 kindergartens and 300 schools defined by the Government Action Plan.
Referring to the topic, the Prime Minister said, "During the pre-election campaign of this year's early parliamentary elections, we recorded our commitment to make investments and reforms in Armenia's education, particularly in the field of general education. In particular, we talked about the program to build, renovate or overhaul 300 schools and 500 kindergartens.
Our main goal is to increase the level of access to quality education in the country. As the year draws to an end, we will enter 2022 in a few days, the purpose of today's discussion is to record how far we have reached in the implementation of the program. Needless to say, it is included in the Government's Action Plan for 2021-2026 and in the list of measures for the implementation of the Government’s Action Plan. Today we will try to be more detailed, to make our future plans in this direction as predictable as possible."
Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan presented the methodology for achieving the goal, the work done using that methodology and the upcoming activities. It was mentioned that in all the regions of the Republic of Armenia and in the capital Yerevan need assessment of pre-school and school service was carried out with the following principle: Needs identification, complete diagnosis and determining the method of complete organization. The enlarged community of Kapan in the Syunik Province was selected as an example, which includes 31 rural settlements, the number of beneficiary children reaches 1000.Here it is planned to organize education in 13 places. Within the framework of the preparatory works, the buildings were inspected, the list of necessary inventory was clarified, the transport routes were mapped, and tenders for the design and estimate documentation were carried out. The financial component of the program is currently being discussed. The need for educational services for the enlarged communities of Tatev, Kajaran and Meghri in Syunik has been determined by the same model, the need assessment in other enlarged communities of the Province is in progress. There is a working group consisting of representatives of the departments in-charge, the work is carried out in accordance with the terms of the respective decision of the Prime Minister of Armenia. After summarizing the works in Syunik, it is planned to launch the same methodology in other provinces.
According to the plan, in 2022 it is expected to carry out construction, overhaul and repair works of about 170 schools, 130 kindergartens, which are currently in progress or in the phase of completion. Moreover, these target indicators do not include possible subsidy or other alternative programs.
In response to the Prime Minister's question, the process of developing a common policy for the involvement of professional staff was presented.
Other issues related to the necessary steps to achieve the target, the current pace, the implementation of subsidy programs with the same criteria, infrastructure availability and other issues were discussed at the meeting. A number of proposals were presented.
The Prime Minister highlighted the application of the conceptual approach at the heart of the program, under which pre-school, school, cultural, sports and other components are considered as a whole. Nikol Pashinyan gave instructions to Deputy Prime Ministers Mher Grigoryan and Hambardzum Matevosyan, proposing to discuss the ideas aimed at fostering the process, highlighting the joint synchronized work.
