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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on September 11 that the government’s program to establish cluster schools had come under significant pressure, particularly ahead of the elections, amid narratives that it constitutes school closures.
Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Pashinyan said the program concerns schools serving several villages.
“We made the decisions to build cluster schools for several villages for completely different purposes. Visiting different communities, we also entered schools. When we entered those schools, we saw that it was impossible to organize an educational process there, both in terms of physical infrastructure and staffing,” Pashinyan said.
He said that, in that situation, a decision was made to establish cluster schools and provide transportation for children from several settlements at the state’s expense.
“So that all children have an equal educational environment and equal conditions,” the Prime Minister said, adding that there had been significant pressure, particularly ahead of the elections, over the narrative of "closing schools."
“I am very happy that we did not give in to that pressure,” he said.
The establishment of cluster schools is one of Armenia’s major strategic education reforms, aimed at reorganizing rural schools with small numbers of students and improving the quality of education. Under the program, the education of students from more than 180 small schools is planned to be organized centrally at around 100 enlarged educational institutions, or clusters.