Ashotyan didn't receive a letter
Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan still hasn't received an official letter from students holding a protest today, but letter has been sent to the prime minister.
The Minister found out about the letter from mass media outlets, as head of the department of information and public relations of the RA Ministry of Education and Science Artur Baghdasaryan told "A1+" today.
The Ministry believes that members of "Heritage" party organized the march.
As far as the issue of reducing spots for Master's and PhD degrees is concerned, Artur Baghdasaryan said: "We repeat that the state orders for Master's and PhD degrees have not been reduced by the government's corresponding resolutions. Whereas there were 1,543 free spots for Master's degrees last year, this year there are still 1,543 spots. Last year, there were 224 free spots with the right to postponement, while this year, there are 122 free spots with the right to postponement and 247 free spots without that right."
According to him, there has been a distribution of spots for postponement and no postponement of compulsory military service within the framework of the state order.
"We think the organizers of the protest are deliberately circumventing the maintenance of the full opportunity to study free through state means. This can be viewed as an attempt to confuse supporters in order to not raise the issues related to possible military service and not to be perceived as people lacking patriotism by the society."
Artur Baghdasaryan argued that the RA Ministry of Education and Science may make additional comments after officially receiving the students' letter.
For the last couple of weeks, university students have been holding protests and marches against the government's resolutions that slash the number of spots for Master's and PhD degrees for students with the right to postponement of military service by half.
