Article 12 of the RA Law "On Social Protection of Disabled" has it, "The state shall guarantee the right of the disabled to education and professional education as well as prepare adequate specialists for that.

Together with the state bodies of social welfare and health, the bodies of education shall create adequate conditions and provide pre-school, secondary, secondary professional and higher education to disabled children in line with the individual handicap rehabilitation project."

In the Republic of Armenia, disabled children (both physical and mental) are (around 5,000 children, % in the same age group) served in different type of boarding schools. In these institutions, in conformity with the above-related Article 12, children are provided with general education, rehabilitation services helping to overcome their physical and mental disorders and develop their potential capabilities.

Until the age of 18, disabled children (children with hearing impairment until 20-22 years of age) are served in 33 types of special boarding institutions (see table 3).

The education of disabled children in special educational institutions is organized using special and localized education plans, in conformity with educational requirements approved by the RA Ministry of Education and Science.

There may be separate divisions under these institutions depending on the pupils’ characteristics and the existence of double underdevelopment. There are 15 such divisions providing individualized, differentiated education.

While the Legislation of the Republic of Armenia allows disabled children, if they wish, to study in general education schools, in practice it applies with great difficulty – only owing to the parents’ tenacity. General schools reject children that have even slight disability.

Because of the present dire socio-economic situation, many disabled children are not included in any type of education at all. Psycho-medical panels discovering disabilities are no longer. On the one hand, families are unable to take children to special schools, on the other hand – the general school is not always congenial to these children. And a child may remain in the family, sometimes not knowing even how to write his name at the age of 15-20.

A major part of children with special education needs is still not included in the education system. At present, a new boarding school strategy is developed about reforming the education and rehabilitation provided to disabled children. Non-governmental organizations engaged in the protection of the disabled and their families have emerged. Together with the government, they stand for the rights of disabled children – the right to a decent life, access to various spheres of societal life - considering the growing potential abilities of disabled children (especially with physical disorders).

Reform projects targeting children with special education needs will resolve some of the issues relating to their integrated education.

Rehabilitation and corrective measures in the education of disabled children seek to decrease their disorders (mental, physical, psychological) to an optimal degree, to promote and expand the extent of their independence first in a general way, and finally at a rehabilitation level allowing them to engage in professional activity. The purpose of the vocational schools No.22 in Yerevan and No.62 in Kapan is to provide advanced professional qualification to mentally retarded graduates from special institutions. Conditions offered in these schools allow disabled children to learn to overcome difficulties in life and involve themselves in the society as full-fledged members. In this process, it is important that the disabled children’s interests, their right to exist, develop, make decisions and express their own opinions be taken into consideration.

Experience in the education of disabled children shows that it is necessary to:

1. develop life skills in self-service;
2. develop a critical approach to opportunities and abilities;
3. develop self-confidence.

These can be achieved through co-ordination of inputs by the public, parents, teachers, special corrective-rehabilitation and health services.

And only then will special education make a breakthrough and integrate with general education, i.e. a disabled child will become part of the general education process and a full member of the society. In other words, an atmosphere responsive to the needs of disabled children needs to be created, where the rights of each and every disabled child will be respected, enabling them to face the complexity of the external world.

The aim of professional technical education (today preliminary professional education) is to prepare students for labor activities requiring preliminary professional qualification building it on the knowledge acquired in basic general education.

Professional technical education is a state-run system preparing factory workers and providing general education at a time.

Until now, professional technical education was provided through professional technical institutions but now the plan is to provided it through handicraft classes taught in upper school grades, and educational production centers under enterprises and organizations.

At present, there are 63 professional technical institutions with 4,063 students and 30 professions.

As per the requirements of the RA Government’s 1995-96 Socio-economic Development Plan, professional-technical schools with similar educational, material and production base were unified, centralized and kept as a component of continuous education. The distribution and list of taught professions were reviewed. In tandem with the demands of the labor market, a paid system of education was introduced in 1995. Due to the centralization of professional technical schools, at present the physical state of all used facilities is satisfactory, allowing proper organization of the education process.

In the 1996-97 school year, advanced handicraft classes were opened in the system of professional technical schooling, serving the education needs of 1,744 students.

In 1997-98, combination educational institutions were created on the basis of professional technical schools in Yerevan, Kapan, Sissian, Abovian, Artik and Vanadzor. The professional technical schools of Sevan and Vaik were reorganized into senior handicraft schools.

Secondary professional education (today, intermediate professional education) is aimed at providing intermediate professional education through expanding the students’ general and professional knowledge based on general secondary education.

Secondary professional education is provided through vocational schools, technical professional schools and colleges. Entrance to vocational schools and technical professional schools requires secondary and basic (8 years) education: education continues for 2-5 years, depending on the profession and the student’s prior education. Entrance to colleges requires secondary education with education lasting three years.

At present, the state runs 17 colleges, 39 vocational schools and 22 professional technical schools totaling 78 secondary professional educational institutions with 8 divisions. A total of 24,271 students attend these institutions of whom 12,897 (or 53.5%) study under state order and 11,284 (or 46.5%) under the paid system. Apart from these institutions, there are also 64 non-governmental secondary professional institutions accommodating an overall of 12,000 students.

Secondary professional educational institutions provide education in 103 professions.

At present, new educational plans and curricula are designed. Professional manuals are translated, lecture series are published. Observation

In 1998, the National Watch Point of the European Training Fund was established which provides the system of professional education informational-analytical and consultancy services about the labor market.

1998 was the founding year of the Finance and Banking College operating within the framework of the Armenian-German Project "Secondary Professional Education in Banking".

"All citizens have the right to free higher and other professional education in state educational institutions, based on competition".

The aim of higher professional education is to provide highly qualified professional education and re-qualification services based on secondary general and intermediate professional education, meeting educational development needs.

In Armenia, there are 16 schools of higher learning (universities and institutes) and 10 divisions. As of 1.10.1999, they comprised a student body of 36,000 of whom 18,000 received free education. At the same time, there are 84 non-governmental schools of higher learning serving a total of 23,809 students.

The teaching staffs of state-owned schools of higher learning make up a total of 4,009, of whom 735 are professors and 2,139 are docents /candidates of sciences/ (as of 1.10.1998).

Higher education grants the following degrees: the bachelor’s degree offered for 4 years of education, the diploma-holding specialist degree for 5 years of education and the Master’s degree for another two years of learning for bachelors and diploma-holding specialists.

Reform projects (RA Prime Minister’s Order No. 293 of 3.06.98) within the Reform Program become necessary for the further development of the system of education. Priority will be given to the strengthening of the Armenian education traditions and the development a concept of national education.

In the area of pre-school education, the policy will be aimed at increasing the role of families in child education. Institutions with various organizational-legal statuses will be encouraged to operate in this area.

The dynamics of the last five years reveal the expected growth in the number of pre-school institutions and enrolment in them.

Public resources in this area will mainly be geared to the implementation and monitoring of special projects.

In consistence with the Project on the Reform of the General Education System of the Republic of Armenia, the strategy of secondary education reform integrates:

1. mobilization of other sources which will contribute funding to education, and redirecting public funding to compulsory general education;
2. structural changes of the education system – decentralization of management, providing more autonomy to educational institutions, involvement of parents and community members in school management.

School finance and management mechanisms will be thoroughly reviewed, focusing on the problems of general education which will include reduction of over-staffed administrations. In the next two years, the problem of ensuring textbooks for all schoolchildren will be solved (see "The Textbook Project").

A number of measures called for by the management and finance system reform were launched in 1998 with their implementation continuing to date. They are aimed at the co-ordination of activities, developing efficient management approaches to enhance the content and quality of education.

Defining the state order in general education and implementing it requires to:

• develop and approve a new concept of the education process;
• develop education criteria and the requirements of educational plans arising from them;
• create an Education Development Plan;
• develop and implement a new state order for preparing and training teachers.

Between 1999 and 2001, it is planned to:

• expand the network of combination educational institutions, involving mainly underutilized institutions implementing various educational projects (by 2001);
• rightsizing classes in large and average schools (i.e. having over 400 pupils) which will allow to reduce the number of classes in the schools of the Republic (1999-2001);
• license senior schools offering differentiated teaching by establishing a list of core subjects and academic hours (by 2001);
• expand the network of primary, secondary and senior private (non-governmental) schools (by 2001);
• create combination educational institutions, including professional technical institutions under marzes (1999-2000);
• define norms regulating the workload of teachers (1999-2000);
• create marz centers for educational development in order to identify the goals and objectives of education from the perspective of regional needs (by 2001);
• training of teachers and management by specialized agencies.

In order to improve the logistic capacities and building facilities of schools (especially in the disaster area), a plan of concrete measures to mobilize possible resources will be submitted to the RA Government.

The Ministry of Education and Science on behalf of the RA Government has put in place a rental system of general education textbooks which is funded from a World Bank credit (around US$ 8 million). The rental system is aimed at implementing a long-term project seeking to ensure that pupils in public general education schools are supplied with textbooks and to create guarantees that in four years the schools will purchase textbooks on their own, using the collected rental fees. The rental system is also aimed at ensuring that all the pupils in Armenia are supplied with the core subject textbooks for reasonable prices for all of them.

The rental system has been in place in all general education schools throughout Armenia since September 1997 and will continue to operate for a minimum of four years.

During these four years, the textbooks of all core subjects included in the state education plan will be provided by the rental system.

Textbooks are rented to pupils for one year only. According to the rental system, at the beginning of each school year, pupils pay a fee for using the textbooks of core subjects. They return the books in the end of the school year which are rented by the next year pupils thereafter. This practice will continue for four or more years, depending on the condition of the books. Funding for publishing, printing and distributing the books has been made available by the Ministry of Education and Science, a special credit was provided by the World Bank and other donor organizations – UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, USAID, NRC, the Fund for Armenian Relief ad Aznavour for Armenia.

The rental system creates guarantees that after the completion of credit and aid projects, a self-financing system will be established which will ensure that all pupils will have access to textbooks.

The guarantees of the success of the rental system include:

• a guarantee provided by the Ministry of Science and Education that the textbooks of the rental system will be used for a minimum of three years;
• the high quality of textbooks will allow the pupils to use them for at least four years;
• teacher and child motivation of taking good care of the books (they should be kept in good condition and in a safe place, both in schools at the end of the year and at home during the school year);
• timely and regular payment of fees by all pupils, except when a child is exempted from payment in accordance with a procedure established by the school;
• using the rental system throughout the country.

Between 1997 and 1999, textbooks with 56 titles have been printed and provided to schools. Project implementation will be completed in 2001.

The project was approved by RA Decision No. 377 of 1 June 1999. The key areas of the general education reform strategy are the structural, financial-economic and organizational changes, including decentralization of the management of the general education system and increased independence of institutions, transition to a new type of funding depending on the number of pupils. New finance and management principles will foster rationalization of the system and ensure the attainment of optimal indicators.

Given the importance of general education for the state and national development in general, the envisaged reform measures will be implemented under a pilot scheme before they are launched full-scale.

This pilot project has been developed in line with the reform strategy and is planned to be implemented in the period from 1999 to 2000.

The pilot for the general education reform aims to assess the opportunities for and implementation mechanisms of the general education reform, to foster and encourage the rationalization and efficacy of the general education system.

The pilot will allow to assess the efficiency and viability of the proposed innovations, most notably decentralization of school management, financing of schools based on the number of pupils and school autonomy.

Lessons learnt from the pilot will help to make changes to and rectify the reform strategy and the key stage of project implementation.

The Project has a complex nature, since it integrates schools of various types and from various regions, covering diverse directions of the reform.

The Project covers about 10% of the country’s general education schools. The selection of schools was intended to reflect the diversity of the general education system to the fullest extent possible. In addition, the experience of implemented projects within the reform framework and the willingness of local and territorial administration to participate in the Project were taken into consideration.

The Project envisages implementation of the following measures:

Schools included in the project will adopt the form of management through school councils. 2/3 of them will remain under marz administration, the rest will be transferred to community management. Relevant sample charters and documents have already been approved.

Schools transferred to community management have been selected from all the marzes, except Yerevan. This arrangement is aimed at conducting a comparative analysis of the efficiency of decentralization depending on community characteristics.

Schools under marz administration have been selected from three marzes. The pilot sites, conditionally called "educational zones" are taken from:

1. Vayots Dzor Marz characterized by a special topography, existence of insulated settlements, low social profile of communities;
2. Kotaik Marz characterized by average indicators in the country;
3. Yerevan as a thickly populated model of a large city.

The "educational zones" have been identified based on the following principles:

1. a zone has to reflect the socio-demographic and geographical characteristics of the area;
2. each zone has to have a sufficient number of schools to enable the designing and piloting of rationalization opportunities and options;
3. a zone has to encompass all the schools in the given geographical area;
4. a zone has to comprise both city and village communities;
5. a zone has to include schools of different types (primary, intermediate, senior, secondary), in different geographical locations (border area, mountainous, insulated) and with different capacity.

The schools included in the Project will create bodies of supreme management, i.e. school councils. This will ensure democratization of management, involvement of communities and parents in school management. The creation of councils will ensure attracting of extra-budgetary resources, transparency of utilization of funds, consolidation and strengthening of the reporting and monitoring systems.

The school headmaster implements the activities of the school on a daily basis and carries out the decisions of the council. The school headmaster is selected in accordance with the competition procedure and criteria established by the RA Ministry of Education and Science.

This form of funding seeks to achieve the following:

• enhance the efficiency and efficacy of the utilization of budgetary resources;
• create the foundations enabling decision-making at the school level;
• ensure the independence of schools to plan their incomes and expenditures as they see fit;
• stimulate competition between schools;
• demonstrate a differentiated approach with respect to schools;
• ensure the monitoring of resource spending by the community and parents;
• create preconditions for a more rational organization of schools and their activities, thrifty use and reallocation of resources.

This financing system needs to meet the following principles:

1. equality in start up conditions;
2. differentiated approach as per institutions;
3. guarantees for schools of strategic importance for the country or "protected schools" that they will be provided with funding commensurate with the funding provided before;
4. justification of the per unit financing normative.

In the conditions of decentralized management of the education system, financing mechanisms of institutions become most important levers for the management and implementation of the state education policy.

The transition of schools to per pupil funding on a lump sum basis, without economic categorization seeks two aims;

1. increase targeted utilization of public resources, leaving expenditure priorities to be determined by school self-governance bodies;
2. create fostering conditions and stimulate the optimization of intra- and inter-school parameters (average class size, teacher/pupil ratios, teachers’ average salaries, etc.).

Transition to the new system should be implemented in the swiftest manner possible, securing that general education schools remain uninfluenced by abrupt changes and deterioration of the situation. A differentiated approach, ensuring sufficient financing will need to be applied with respect to schools important in strategic terms (in the border area, in highly mountainous areas, in insulated areas) and with a limited number of pupils accounted for by objective reasons.

From 154 schools included in the pilot project, schools with less than 100 pupils, have been identified as strategic schools. It is assumed that the amount of their funding will be determined by the system used until today – as per the number of classes and will be allocated to the schools without an economic categorization.

The main aim of this measure is the efficient utilization of budget resources, increasing teachers’ salaries and their living standard.

Rationalization may be implemented at intra- as well as at inter-school levels. At the intra-school level, it implies:

• reorganization of undersized classes;
• optimization of the number of support and administrative staff;
• reduction of the number of teachers;
• optimization of the teacher/pupil ratio within established norms through increasing the number of pupils in a class and raising teachers’ workloads.

At the inter-school level, rationalization can be implemented through unification of schools or through changing school types. This mostly relates to thickly populated areas with several schools closely located in one place. Inter-school rationalization does not apply to insular and strategically important schools.

The funds of the education credit will primarily be channeled to provide adequate assistance to schools included in the pilot project. In particular:

1. school headmasters and members of school councils will be provided with financial, economic and management knowledge and skills;
2. a project on "School Improvement" will be implemented: in the pilot project, schools will be provided with competitive grants worth up to US$10,000 to implement education projects aimed at the development of educational activities;
3. highlighting of a pilot project will be organized, community awareness-raising activities will be undertaken.

The system of out-of-school education is called to ensure children’s preferential education and the efficient utilization of their free time. Along with the implementation of the envisaged rationalization project in the system, the organizational-legal form and public funding mechanisms of the system’s institutions will be defined. Additional paid services will be encouraged which at this stage will be the guaranty for the system’s survival and subsequently also the guaranty for its development.

The recent years have been marked with an increase of children’s enrollment rates in institutions, mostly accounted for by the low living standard of the population as well as the absence of alternative ways of education and care for children with special needs.

In the coming years, one of the priorities will be decentralization of services in special and boarding schools and the development of educational services in general education schools and communities. At the same time, the types of educational institutions and children’s classes that will be under government responsibility will be clearly identified. There will be centralized control over enrollment of children in boarding institutions. Measures implemented in the system will allow a gradual reduction of the number of boarding institutions without affecting detrimentally the quality of the care and education of children with special needs.

There are at present 15 colleges and 62 secondary professional educational institutions run by the government (and government agencies). As a result of a general change of the system, their overall number will be reduced to 62 and 40 in 1999-2000 and in 2000-2001 respectively.

Envisaged changes include:

• Reorganization of all types of secondary professional institutions (technicums, vocational schools, colleges) into colleges;
• Gradual reduction of the number of such institutions by way of merging them into larger institutions;
• Reviewing the list of professions, adjusting taught subjects to the labor market requirements;
• Radical review of the principles of placement of state orders and development of new mechanisms.

The following stand out as the most important in the range of problems of higher education:

1. Clarification of the organizational-legal types of schools of higher learning, improvement of system management and financing mechanisms;
2. Establishing state standards for licensing and accreditation of private schools of higher learning;
3. Radical review of the formation and distribution procedure of state
4. order in order to repeal the method of equal distribution of ‘genetically’ transferred entrance places;
5. Putting into practice government supervision over the autonomy of schools of higher learning and the final results of education provided by them.

In 1999, it is planned to maintain state ordered entrance numbers at the 1998/99 level, accounted for by the following:

• gradual rehabilitation of various areas of economic activity in the country;
• increase in the number of places in schools of higher learning in Yerevan designated for Mountainous Karabagh;
• increase of the number of pedagogical schools of higher learning designated for Armenian communities in the CIS;
• introduction of modern professions in different sectors of the country’s economy;
• establishment of a separate Academy of Arts on the basis of a number of branches of arts institutes.

Table. School Renovation Projects by the Social Investment Fund

56 Armenian non-governmental organizations have implemented 95 education projects.

• Access to pre-school education, ensuring highest child enrolment,
• Provision of co-ordinated methodological and pedagogical assistance to parents in preschool education – this will be by creating methodological books on early childhood education, organizing radio and television series for young parents and providing other forms of counsel to young families.

• Registration of children and provision of basic education;
• Improvement of management and financing mechanisms of the general education system, establishment of the optimal teacher/administrative staff ratio and autonomy of institutions, transition to a new financing system based on pupil numbers - the latter will allow to have budgetary resources better targeted to meet school needs. As well, differentiated approach will be applied with respect to schools in the border area and remote regions;
• Rationalization of the general education system in accordance with established norms of class sizes and teacher’s workloads;
• Formulation of a new state order for pedagogical workers;
• Establishment of state standards, matching together education plans, curricula and textbooks, providing educational institutions with the opportunity to choose recommended education programs, improvement of educational plans, introduction of newly integrated subjects, formulation of life skills;
• Provision of distance education through mass media and communication.

• Gradual transition from boarding schools to longer daily schools;
• Integration of children’s education with special needs with general educational institutions.

1. Movsissian, A. K., From the History of Armenian Schools and Teaching, Yerevan, 1968
2. Educational Policy Report, Armenian National Commission for UNESCO, 1994
3. Analysis of the Situation of Children and Women in Armenia, UNICEF, Save the Children, 1998
4. Population of the USSR, 1988, State Committee for Statistics, 1989

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