After latest PISA assessment, PM says “ignorant” school principals shall be fired

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed on Friday the latest PISA assessment, which showed Armenian 15-year-olds performed below the international average in mathematics, science and reading, trailing their regional counterparts in the latest assessment.

“Yesterday, a study was published related to students’ academic performance. Of course, I have not had time to discuss with the minister the issue related to assessing the literacy level of our students. Certain discussions and criticisms are now taking place, especially by the opposition,” Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

He highlighted ongoing reforms but also acknowledged persistent problems.

According to him, since 2021, a program to reconstruct 300 schools has been underway, after the completion of which another program for 300 schools will begin.

“We are completing the program for 300 schools and starting the program for another 300, and if we complete that as well, there will still be a need for at least another 300-450 schools in the Republic of Armenia. No one asks why there is a need for 1,000 schools in Armenia. How can there be a vital need to build 1,000 schools in a country that has had 35 years of independence?” the Prime Minister said.

According to Pashinyan, it is necessary to face this fact and acknowledge that there are problems in Armenia’s schools.

“We have problems in schools. To this day, there are principals and teachers in our schools who teach such ideas… who teach ignorance. It is good that this topic exists. After the elections, I set a task before the minister, I said that all of them should be removed from schools. Ignorant principals must be dismissed, and there are dozens of them,” Pashinyan said.

He stressed that in the education sector, changing only the infrastructure is not enough.

“This is why I say that the revolution in this hall is not enough. For years, our school has been based on memorization. We are trying to form a general education system on the ruins of schools,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan also addressed the matter.

“So that we have internationally comparable data and correctly understand what we need to do, we initiated participation in this research. A total of 7,000 students from 295 schools participated in the research. Most of the participants are 10th-grade students,” the minister said.

According to her, the students who participated in the research had studied under the previous standards.

The minister noted that the changes being implemented will make it possible to record higher results in the next round of the research.

“The work we are carrying out in all these directions will allow us to see different results in the next round, which is in 2029. It is very important that the existing problems are also properly diagnosed,” Andreasyan said.