6 minute read
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan underscored the strategic importance of the Academic City project in his remarks at the Academic City: International Knowledge Forum in Yerevan.
Academic City Armenia is a groundbreaking educational hub designed to foster innovation, research, and collaboration. Situated on the outskirts of Yerevan, the Academic City will host students, researchers, and professionals from around the globe. With cutting-edge facilities and strong international partnerships, Academic City will offer world-class education and hands-on experience in emerging industries. The Project aims to merge Armenia’s top academic institutions with leading global expertise, promoting interdisciplinary learning and technological innovation. Academic City is more than a campus; it’s a vibrant sustainable community that contributes to Armenia’s growth and positions it as a leader in education, research, and development on the global stage.
Academic City Armenia’s mission is to establish a transformative hub for education, research, and innovation that drives Armenia’s socio-economic development.
Phase 1 of development is expected to be completed by 2030.
“Education is a platform for predicting an individual's future, and the "Academic City" project is essentially about strengthening and transforming this system of predicting an individual's future into a system for predicting the future of the state. In my opinion, "Academic City" is the project that will most effectively enhance the formula for predicting an individual's future,” the PM said during a panel titled Predicting the Future.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that a key component of the "Academic City" project is the high schools. "We plan to have high schools there in various fields, including an arts school, a technology school, and high schools in all other directions. The idea behind this is to provide the most distinguished children from across the country with the opportunity to be closer to higher and postgraduate education during the intermediate phase," the Prime Minister said. He also added that every child, without exception, is a unique talent, and the role and importance of the educational system is to discover and nurture that talent.
"Life itself is a process of learning, and therefore, our task is to make this learning process, this process of education, more institutionalized, more purposeful, and more informed. The same applies to the life of the country, and my prediction is that our plan is for the 'Academic City' to become the gravitational center of the life of Armenia, which will shape the course of life in Armenia at the individual, group, community, and state levels."
Next, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan answered questions from the attendees. Responding to a question about his assessment of the current state of Armenia's education system and its development prospects, the Prime Minister said:
"The state of the education system in the Republic of Armenia is poor, but the good news is that we have a clear plan and project for how to change this situation. Let’s take a look, for example, at the issue of teachers' social condition. Today, when I visit the regions of the country, I am pleased to learn that there are already teachers in the regions earning 500,000 drams, 450,000 drams, and 400,000 drams [per month].”
“But this does not mean that we have reached our dream, because we have agreed that voluntary certification should be repeated in phases,” he added, referring to the performance-based tests undertaken by teachers to advance in their career.
Asked about the role of Academic City in transforming Armenia's educational ecosystem and fully realizing the potential of young professionals, the PM said:
"The Academic City should be the acceleration center for development thinking in Armenia, the gravitational center around which events should take place." According to the Prime Minister, one of the key features of the Academic City is bringing the workplace closer to potential students, which will allow them to gain practical experience on-site. It will also serve as the top center for intellectual leisure.
"This is very important. This will not be another fenced-off project, where only students or lecturers come and go," said Pashinyan. The Prime Minister emphasized that the Academic City is a project with a completely different logic, where both students and lecturers will have the opportunity to live and work fully.