As I travel through out rural Armenia, I am realizing that there is too much educational capacity. In the typical town, there are over 15 schools. Each school has a large half used building, a director, two vice directors, a director of grounds and a full compliment of teachers. In Europe or the US, similar areas would have at most two primary schools and two secondary schools. It is estimated by various international organizations that Armenia has a 63% public employment and for a country of 2.5 million people, that is a huge public sector. It is easy to see much of that capacity exists in the education sphere.

Recently, I have been discussing the issue of public employment with various leaders regarding schools. Many agree that there are too many school buildings and with the population dwindling due to emigration to Yerevan and Russia, each school is racing the others to improve itself to ensure the Ministry of Education does not close it. Currently, the average size of the first class is 15 students but ten years ago it was 40 students. These are unofficial and in many schools especially outside of the midsized towns, there is an even smaller first year class with many having not one student in the first year class.

I have been advocating for the schools to be combined. Everyone responds with a “Mank chank karogh” (We can’t!). I ask why and the response is that it will put the teachers out of work. I counter with the fact that the current system is too expensive for the rural areas and the country. This always leads to a discussion of the current educational system which in general is severely lacking.

Armenia has a long tradition of education but that education is not the quality that is needed to help the country improve. As I work with the universities in the northern part of the country, I am realizing that out of every class, at most there will be five students that truly wish to study. The young men in particular are incapable of using a computer and rarely do the homework and reading needed to learn the skills needed to advance the economy. How is Armenia to reach the vision of Armenia 2020 or any of the other programs put forth if the population is not capable and educated?

I believe that the education system must be condensed and quickly. The country needs to close as many schools as possible and invest the saving in improving the educational process. Of course buses would be used to transport the children to school as the school districts would grow to be about 100 square kilometers. The saved money needs to be put into developing the good teachers so the education the children receive is actually worth something. If the schools were properly funded and each school was warm, had working plumbing and had the best teachers (not the current mediocre form), we would see a tremendous change in the next 15 years. Instead the current system limps along. Children study at most 3 hours a day and of those studies most are ineffective as there are no resources. I have been to many schools and I am yet to see a chemistry or physics lab that is actually working. Most schools have no more than 10 computers most of which were given by the American Department of State.

Of course there is DFID working in Tavush and Gegharkunik Marzes and the Armenian government borrowed a lot of money from the World Bank to reengineer the education system. These programs although have a decent basis are not moving quick enough nor are they willing to make the serious cuts that need to be made to condense the education system. Both programs are just another subsidy to the system which already is overly subsidized and a drag on Armenia’s development.

If you want to begin to help Armenia improve, I would recommend addressing the issue of an education system that is falling very short of correctly educating the students to be ready for an international economy. The system must be condensed and only the best teachers employed. The other teachers will then be challenged to begin businesses and to find other ways to make a living. This is the only way the future of rural Armenia will be improved. At the current rate of mediocrity, it will be simply a generation until rural Armenia is empty and the people who lived here are working as laborers around the world and not as educated professionals.

Note: I know I do not address the issues of teachers teaching poorly in class so they can ‘tutor’ the same students at home and make twice the amount of money tutoring as they do teaching in school (or shall I say not teaching in school). I also do not address the fact that reasonable methods are not being used and that students have little to no access to resources to help themselves. Of course these are generalizations but I believe that without outside help and pressure, the Armenian education system will be counterproductive to the improvement of Armenia.