YEREVAN — Serob Khachatryan, a specialist in education who teaches at Yerevan State University in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology and served as executive director of the Children of Armenia Fund from 2010 to 2013, recently spoke about the dearth of teachers in the country.
He summarized university admission results for the 2022-2023 academic year: “The Republic of Armenia needs about 150 teachers every year, according to the data. This year, for example, at the Pedagogical University, about forty applicants were admitted in the field of elementary pedagogy, in the history, social studies, Armenian language and literature, English, Russian, and German departments. The science departments are in a more tragic situation, where only seven people were admitted.”
He added that he had predicted this unfortunate situation earlier.
He explained, “For example, the biology major is in the ‘best’ shape among natural science subjects, as there are fifteen applicants. However, all fifteen applicants failed their examinations. Applicants to geography, information science and chemistry majors also recorded similar results. Only one person passed the exam in physics, and six in mathematics.”
The expert noted with sorrow that the professions which schools rely on to progress are in decline — that is, today we are facing the danger of losing the essence of the schools, because this trend is constantly accelerating.
He said: “It’s sad, but if in the near future, the vacant places of students are not filled, at least with applications for distant places, then in addition to pedagogical problems, we will also see serious financial problems of the Pedagogical University, which you can understand what they can lead to.”
