A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government made a decision to allocate money to the Syunik regional administration for the purpose of operative response to the problems that have emerged in the Province. According to the substantiation, as a result of the war, a number of communities in Syunik Province have become bordering communities, where there are a number of urgent social problems that need to be addressed. Accordingly, in order to solve the urgent problems in the Province, it is planned to allocate 400 million AMD to the Syunik Development and Investment Fund for the implementation of the works of this stage in the regional and community infrastructure, as well as for the implementation of important and urgent programs of social, vital importance for the population.

The Government made a decision on providing funding for covering the expenses for electricity, gas and communication services of the population of Artsakh for December 2021, as well as for providing funding for paying salaries, benefits, pensions and expenses for healtchare, social and educational programs for December, envisaged by the state budget of Artsakh for 2021. The total funding amounts to 13 billion and 533 million AMD.

The Government approved the draft law "On Making Amendments to the Law on General Education”. The proposed amendments relate to the following key areas: teacher certification, encouragement, introduction of new tools for professional development, more flexible, effective approaches to general education management, application of learner-centered and effective mechanisms in inclusive education, clarification of up-to-date requirements for general education content. The bill divides school management process into two main parts: educational and administrative.

Referring to the legislative initiative, Nikol Pashinyan noted that strong and principled reforms are going on in the sphere of general education. "And with the adoption of this law, I think we will have very big and visible changes in the field of general education. First, we want the school principal to focus on the quality of education, coping as little as possible with the door, window, roof, pipe, tile, and other issues. For that, we first separate the management of the administrative part of the school from the management of the educational part. In other words, the principal will deal with all the issues that are exclusively related to the quality and the content of education. The management of the premises of the grouped schools will be handled by another official, who will be called the head or coordinator of the administrative unit. School budgets for the maintenance of outbuildings will be centralized. The Administrative Director will know that his responsibility includes resolving technical and property issues exclusively related to the maintenance of the building. In other words, the school principal will be engaged exclusively in education”, the PM said.

The Prime Minister also noted that the head of the administrative unit and the principal should be appointed by the authorized body through a certain procedure, which will be defined by the decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. First, the expected results from the school principal should be defined, and then the people suitable for the position of the principal should present by what actions they see the implementation of those results. "The appointed principals will enjoy immunity for one year. In a year, the councils will have the opportunity to express distrust of them. Every three years their activity and results should be checked. If we see that the standards set by the state are clearly observed, the school provides quality education, the term of activity of the principal will be automatically extended”, Nikol Pashinyan said.

The next important innovation, according to the Head of the Government, is the establishment of the institute of voluntary certefication of teachers by law. "In other words, we create a link here, we make it institutional so that it does not depend on government decisions. Teachers need to know that they can apply for a salary increase by reaffirming their qualifications."

Touching upon the reforms of inclusive education, Nikol Pashinyan noted that it is planned to introduce new additional funding mechanisms: the inclusive education sector will also become a formula for ensuring additional resources for school funding.