Will high schools replace private tutors?
14-year-old Shushan Hakobyan, schoolgirl of Yerevan's Secondary School N 197, will no longer study with her classmates as the educational institution has no high classrooms.
In 2008 Armenia converted to a three-level educational system with the following sequence: elementary school, middle school and high school.
The formation of high schools is a gradual process.
Forty-eight high schools will operate throughout Armenia this year, seventeen of which are located in Yerevan. It means that each community of Yerevan City will have one or two high schools.
At present, there are 1169 secondary schools in Yerevan.
Vanik Misakyan, chief specialist of the RA Ministry of Education and Science, says the number of high schools will total 150 in two or three years.
Before that pupils of high schools will have to get up early to be in time for classes.
"Mummy says I had better go to a choreographic school instead of a high school as I shall have to pay the same fare," says 14-year-old Shushan Hakobyan.
The first two levels of educational system are compulsory. High schools which form the third level are not compulsory though they are gratuitous.
Many schoolchildren are supposed to prefer colleges and vocational schools to high schools. School principals do not rule out this possibility. As a rule, college leavers are admitted to institutes of higher education hors concours.
"To tell the truth, after school years children largely wish to study at colleges under the Pedagogical Institute, Polytechnic or Medical University. They enter colleges to further their studies in that direction," says the Schoolmistress of School N 197 Varsik Tadevosyan.
Mrs. Tadevosyan salutes the shift to a three-level secondary education system and considers it as an urgent education reform. At the same time, she says parents should realize the role and significance of a high school for its efficiency. Today parents don't seem to realize the essence of the education reform and the need for shifting to 12-year secondary education system launched in 2006.
Yerevan citizen Vardan Markosyan, 45, whose sun studies in the 9th form, says their family budget was added by new expenses. He has to give his son 300-400 drams for daily travel expenses as the high school is far from their house.
"We led a quite life. What is the use of this innovation? Let our children study ten years. I think all these changes are in vain. It doesn't matter how many years they study. Knowledge depends on the way it is presented and taught," adds Mr. Vardan Markosyan.
Chief specialist of the RA Ministry of Education and Science Vanik Misakyan says high school is the last level of education and should direct pupils to independent life and work market.
He thinks that high school pupils will no longer apply to private tutors.
It is still unknown how many pupils will go to the aforesaid 48 high schools in Armenia.
Each class is said to have 25-30 pupils. Education will be realized from different angles - physicomathematical, chemicobiological, humanitarian, economic, etc.
Both parents and children are skeptical in this view.
"It makes no difference. I shall have to go to additional studies, anyway. Will the school give me fundamental knowledge to be able to enter university? I don't believe it," said 15-year-old Tatevik Sargsyan.
School Principal of Yerevan's High School N 198 Artashes Torosyan, ensures that after attending high schools pupils will come to realize that they no longer need private tutors.
Note that pupils are calculated to pay a tutor 25-30 thousand drams a month for a subject.
