Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that teachers who fail the certification process should no longer be allowed to work in public schools.
“I was watching the news yesterday and saw that the number of applicants who received failing grades is significantly higher than last year. This is a warning signal. Apparently, we are slowing down on the path of our reforms. We make too many compromises, constantly making compromises, and as a result it is the children who suffer. There is a certification process—one attempt, two, three, four… How long can this continue? If a teacher cannot pass, then they should not be working in a school. It is their students who go on to fail the entrance examination, not even achieving a passing grade. I’m not even talking about excellent results—at least a passing grade,” Pashinyan said, according to Sputnik Armenia.
The prime minister stressed that clear and decisive decisions are needed.
A voluntary teacher certification system has been in place in Armenia for several years. On June 26, 2023, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan said that, according to the data available at the time, more than 1,300 teachers in Armenia’s general education schools did not hold higher education degrees. She also noted that dozens of teachers were already earning salaries of 400,000 drams or more.
