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Education authorities in Armenia announced on Friday that the upcoming academic year will have a theme, just like the previous ones, with this one declared the Year of Reading.
Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan said authorities will pay great attention to programs encouraging children to read.
“I must say that this is of fundamental importance in terms of children’s academic performance and the effectiveness of learning any other subject. In this sense, reading is also included in the Government’s new program as one of the priority directions. This will help us work in a more targeted and purposeful manner in this direction,” Andreasyan said at a press conference.
The academic year will kick off within the framework of the 9th International Book Festival on September 4, 2026. Separate discussions on the topic “How to promote reading” are planned as part of the festival.
“We have divided the year into different months, while also guiding our schools, within each month, to carry out more extensive work around this topic. We will start September with our epic, and ‘Daredevils of Sassoun’ will be the main topic for our schools to work on and conduct reading-related activities around,” the minister said.
She also presented the thematic months planned throughout the year. October will be the month of translated literature, November will be International Novel Month, detective literature will be discussed in December, dramaturgy will be in focus in January, February will be dedicated to fairy tales, March is planned as International Poetry Month, April will be the month of children’s literature, and May will be the month of biographies, memoirs and motivational books.
“We have tried to make different genres of literature more visible to our children throughout the year, so that each of them can choose books and authors that interest them according to their preferences and thereby strengthen their connection with reading,” Andreasyan said.
Teacher and student conferences are also planned throughout the year. They will take place in October and November and will be dedicated to reading.
“I am happy to note here that one of the strengths of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport is that through cooperation with several fields at once, we are able to ensure more effective work. In particular, our libraries and museums will be actively involved during the Year of Reading,” the minister said.
The Museum of Literature and Art will implement a separate educational and cultural program titled “What Our Writers Read.”
“Visits to the house-museums of various writers are also planned, accompanied by the reading of appropriate age-specific literature and events. We will conclude the program with a competition for the classes that visit the most museums. Thus, they will also have the opportunity to receive an assessment of their work,” Andreasyan said.
The minister also noted that the Reading Olympiad will be held not only for fifth- and sixth-graders, but also for all students in middle and high school. According to the minister, for middle- and high-school students, the format will be an essay.
Andreasyan also said that it is the ministry’s policy to continuously replenish school libraries with new literature.
“Among our upcoming decisions will be the relevant regulation on the procedure for financing schools, under which schools will have the opportunity each year to purchase new books for their libraries,” she said.