Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, which has been reorganized following structural changes in the Government of the Republic of Armenia. The Premier met with the staff to outline the tasks set before the Ministry.

Minister Arayik Harutyunyan first presented the deputy ministers responsible for specific spheres and touched upon the Ministry’s activities. Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that the establishment of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport has a conceptual significance.

“We see this agency from the following perspective: today culture is perceived as an educational phenomenon, and instead, we consider education as a cultural phenomenon. In our view, this is the combination that should bring about meaningful changes because it is in this dimension, in essence, we decide what kind of content we want to create in our country, what level of public relations we want to shape and what kind of public relations we want to build. In this regard, I think that the ministry should work seriously to draw a desirable image of the citizen of the Republic of Armenia and to make it a reality as a result of public debate,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the ideas that became of primary importance following last year’s events must be converted into reality, which is one of the most important provisions of the government program.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, the existing political messages should reach the public through culture. According to the head of government, the state should have a specific impact on the content that is provided to the public through cultural channels.

“This does not mean that the state should create clichés and deliver it to the public. We receive these messages in the media field as well as from our colleagues working on different platforms that feel the need for collaboration between the government and society so that we can form a consensus or a level in which we can understand the level and form of public relations. I think that culture should, in essence, answer the following question: how do we understand the relationship between two citizens of Armenia, irrespective of the environment they live in,” the Prime Minister said. The Premier considered the functional role of cultural centers as the next important issue.

“The museum is sometimes confused with the Central Bank’s reserves: it seems to be a place that should be as isolated as possible, with few people involved. But our understanding is diametrically opposite because any cultural center is primarily supposed to serve the human being, since it is also a medium of education, and we consider that the continued increase in people’s educational standards is as a vital feature of cultural fcl in general. I think we cannot tackle this problem without a new educational and cultural policy. We have come and have reached the point that this is a necessity,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

The next issue the Prime Minister spoke about was the national identity. According to the Prime Minister, either culture has to play a great role in this process. The head of government underscored that the Armenians should have a higher degree of self-identification in Armenia and the Diaspora because over time the process of self-identification was somewhat unsatisfactory in different parts of our nation. Nikol Pashinyan said that sometimes we realize that a political process has been pursued to create unwanted new identities which, in turn, may lead to a number of problems.

“By the way, this may have to do with differences in the educational policies implemented in Armenia and in the Diaspora. We often encounter realities when the same content is rendered differently in Armenia and in the Diaspora which, in my opinion, is a strategic issue in terms of strengthening our national identity.

We need to pay greater attention to identity issues and pay special attention to self-identification in Armenian communities scattered around the globe. That is, we should have a single identity irrespective of differences in our educational and cultural life. Instead, people should come closer every year and every day as this is vital to our national integrity,” the Prime Minister said.

The head of government next touched upon the complexities related to urban development programs, which are somewhat related to culture. “There used to be a practice in the past when town planning programs were implemented on verbal terms and agreements, sometimes in breach of the applicable standards, which often went underdeveloped for a long time. We must provide that the ministry, the relevant department and the approaches could not be an impediment to investment, of course considering our commitments and obligations towards the public,” Nikol Pashinyan emphasized.

Coming to education, the head of government said that the most fundamental issue here concerns general education. “While spending a few hours with children, we should be convinced that we provide them with the material that coincides with our strategic goals. This is directly linked to the question of what country we are dreaming of and what kind of citizens we want to bring up. The architecture of that future country must begin right from the pre-school age. We see Armenia as a technologically advanced and democratic state, a country of law of law, and all this should be reflected in our pre-school teaching methods. It is important for us to understand that education is a cornerstone in that sense. For example, when we talk about a society free of violence, but our children continue to live under the influence of criminal subculture, it is obvious that we cannot solve the problem at all. And here, education and culture have a lot to do with what content or message we are sending to children of pre-school age, at school, as well as when watching TV in the evening? In recent years, there is much talk about soap operas and their content, many radical appeals and suggestions have been voiced, but I think this tool should also be used for our state goals, and there must be cooperation,” Nikol Pashinyan said, stressing that criminal thinking and propaganda should be ruled out in our society. He reiterated that such phenomena should be eradicated from our country, since they can lead to other negative things, including political ones.

Touching upon higher education, the head of government said that there is good potential in this system; in this area it is necessary to achieve some organizational, content-specific solutions to change the image of universities.

Nikol Pashinyan attached importance to internationalization of higher education, which will stimulate the universities to reach a qualitatively new level.

Speaking about science, the head of government said that its practicalization is also of strategic importance. “I expect the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport to cooperate closely with the Ministry of High-Tech Industry throughout this process because the whole process should ultimately bridge the transformation of education, science and science into one of the most important tools for boosting the economy. This transformation will not take place if the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of High-Tech Industry fail to develop clear-cut and coherent actions. The Science Committee also has its own function. Of course, we have talked about it several times, including during the sessions of the Military Industry Commission. And here, too, cooperation between the two ministries is of fundamental importance,” Nikol Pashinyan said, highlighting the introduction of the idea of scientific result in the economy and the formulation of economic demands as scientific issues.

Emphasizing the importance of the development of the sport, the prime minister said that it is related to our lifestyle and relationships.

“Here, first of all, we are talking about healthy lifestyle preaching, the quality of teaching physical education at schools, and the general policy of our physical culture. We need to understand what kind of relationships are sports and general education schools, sports infrastructures.

In particular, the question is whether we should have sports infrastructure at public schools, at the same time sports schools.

How are these sports infrastructures currently used for what purposes, on what basis? And at the root of this question we do not prescribe it, it's really a matter of serious study.

Certainly, the next issue to be solved is the relationship between the ministry and sports federations - the issue of government and federation relations. here are some suggestions for a few models and they should be discussed so that we can be able not only to continue the best traditions in the field of sports, but also to succeed, because I think the great achievements in sports also have a direct impact not only on young people, teenagers, and the general public perceptions,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Harutyunyan touched upon the future plans of his agency. According to the minister, serious work is underway in the fields of general education and higher education. Particularly, according to Arayik Harutyunyan, new standards and programs are elaborated that will solve the issues raised by the Prime Minister. The Minister advised that new strategies will be worked out in the spheres of culture and sport, to define the criteria that they want to see in those spheres.

In response, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that the April events last year had one important feature, which has been repeatedly discussed, namely the active and broad participation of schoolchildren in political processes.

“I have been thinking about this topic for a long time. It is clear that we have not done any organizational work in schools, we have not set such a problem before us. What happened came as the initiative and decision of children. It was an interesting thing for me, and I have always tried to understand what has happened and what is the reason. My conclusion was that it was actually children’s birthmark for our general education system.

Why is it that the reason why children should make such a rush? It seems to me that the main reason for this revolt is simply that children understand that our general education system does not provide them with sufficient skills that they can move forward with their courage and confidence in their dreams. I think this is the biggest problem for our general education, perhaps even higher education.

Children are faced with infinite horizons, thanks to technology and information. When they come to school, they wish to see that the school can endow them with sufficient skills to pursue their dreams. And I would formulate our general education problem in the same way. We need to help children have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. Our main task is to foster our children’s dreams and aspirations; we must let them fly in their imagination and have the skill to pursue those dreams, and use their time as effectiveky as possible,” Nikol Pashinyan concluded.

Speaking about higher education, the Premier noted that the biggest problem here is the lack of a research complement. The head of government attached importance to the development of expertise in universities: “In this regard, we came to the conclusion that in order to enhance the public administration system’s efficiency, we should closely cooperate with the university system, delegating some of the state functions. We are already using this model in the Agrarian and Economic Universities.”

During the meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the protection of cultural values, monuments, their economic significance and other relevant issues.