General education within the communities of national minorities of the Republic of Armenia

Pursuant to Article 1 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On language”, “The Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the free use by national minorities of their languages within its territory”. Article 2 of the same Law prescribes that “In communities of national minorities of the Republic of Armenia, the general education and upbringing may be organised in their native languages by compulsory instruction of the Armenian language, in compliance with the state programme and under the state patronage”. A similar provision is also stipulated in point 10 of Article 4 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On general education”. The Strategy Programme for Pre-School Education Reforms of the Republic of Armenia for 2008-2015 is aimed at improving pre-school education services, and priority is given to poor families and to communities where there are no pre-school institutions. Special focus is on the engagement of children of national minorities, refugees and migrants in pre-school education. The institutions engaged in the Programme have been provided with programme and methodical books, as well as educational and visual materials and accessories. Within the scope of the Programme, school-based pre-school services have been created within communities, or those services are provided at kindergartens. Particularly, within the scope of the Education Quality and Relevance Credit Project of the World Bank, pre-school children of Assyrian origin from the communities of Dvin and Dimitrov of Ararat Marz of the Republic of Armenia, and pre-school children of Yezidi origin from the community of Shamiram of Aragatsotn Marz have also been included in pre-school groups receiving pre-school education; repair and finishing works, as well as works with regard to the provision of property have been carried out. Pre-school education centres have been established within the buildings of schools of a number of rural communities of Shirak, Aragatsotn, Armavir and Ararat Marzes of the Republic of Armenia where there are classes for children of national minorities between the ages of 4 and 5 during the first half of the day. Overall, in the 2014-2015 School Year, 473 children of families of national minorities were enrolled at pre-school education institutions of the Republic of Armenia. Every year, an exemplary curriculum for a general education school (grade) of a particular national minority is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia; in the 1st-12th grades, a certain amount of hours is allotted for the study of the native language, literature, culture and history of a particular national minority (41 class hours per week). A programme and a timetable for development of education of national minorities have been drafted, pursuant to which, every year, school textbooks devoted to the language, literature and culture of a national minority in the Republic of Armenia are published or republished, and regular training courses are conducted for teachers of the schools of national minorities. Training courses for 21 teachers teaching in the national language of Yezidis (2013), 16 teachers teaching Kurdish (2014), 7 teachers teaching Assyrian (2015) have been organised. Between 2009 and 2015, Kurdish “ABC book”, “Native Language” textbooks for the 2nd-5th grades, “Native Language and Literature” textbooks for the 6th-9th grades were published at the expense of the funds of the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia. Textbooks for the classes of elementary, secondary and high schools were published in the national language of the Yezidis for the Yezidi community. Textbooks entitled “Speak Assyrian” (1st grade), “Write and speak Assyrian” for the 1st-2nd grades were published. To develop elementary education in Assyrian, the authors of the textbooks were suggested to create relevant study materials. The standard and the syllabus for 32 the 1st-12th grades of Kurdish and Assyrian languages have been approved. The textbook “Native Studies-5” and textbooks for Mathematics for upper grades have been translated from Armenian into Russian, provided to the pupils of the schools of national minorities by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia.