WATERTOWN — Vicky Kherlopian gave a lecture about education in Armenia today in both Armenian and English, accompanied by PowerPoint slides, on April 3 at the Baikar Center in Watertown. Her particular focus was the work of EduArmenia in Armenia. The talk was sponsored by the Tekeyan Cultural Association (TCA) Boston Chapter.
Kherlopian based her presentation on the five years of work she has done with EduArmenia. She said, “After teaching all these years in public schools, understanding what teaching is all about, from kindergarten to high school level, I thought that it is my duty to train educators in Armenia and help my Armenian motherland in the best way possible.”
In the public sphere of education, Kherlopian noted that the Armenian government in recent years has introduced reforms attempting a transition to a competency-based curriculum fostering critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving from the old rote memorization approach, together with teacher development programs, renovation of school buildings and integration of technology into classrooms.
EduArmenia, she said, is a program of volunteer Armenian lecturers and teachers globally to promote education in Armenia. It organizes free training for people in the fields of education and science in Armenia so that current achievements in the academic system globally can be implemented also in Armenia. Thus it promotes professional development there, educational reform, and a reservoir of educational scientific resources. It also establishes experimental centers in Armenia.
The two founders of the organization are Lilit Mukurtchyan, who works as a member of the Armenian Ministry of Education, and Seda Kocharyan, who currently is an educator in Germany. Kherlopian presented a brief video message from the two of them in Armenian. Kocharyan said that when they began EduArmenia (in 2017), the two of them were ordinary teachers in Armenia who sought to solve many of the problems of the educational system and sought the opinions of their fellow teachers for this purpose. Mukurtchyan mentioned the annual international pan-Armenian conferences conducted over the last four years which brought together educators, scholars and administrators and whose recordings are available on the EduArmenia website.
EduArmenia offers both free online university lectures and a lab school platform allowing collaborative planning, sharing of educational experience and professional development. Mukurtchyan mentioned several popular programs, such as “Zoom-drinking,” which are informal meetings and discussions on Zoom over a cup of tea or coffee, and preservation of Armenian identity through traditional holidays like Easter, Vartavar or Hampartzoum.
