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LIFELONG EDUCATION IN ARMENIA: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
S.H. Pipoyan
The UN Development Program praised Armenia for its education showings, which have remained consistently high for years, in its 2006 National Human Resources Development Report. Evidently, 99.4% of adult Armenians are literate. Such a high score on literacy augurs well for the nation’s continued education prospects. But Armenia did not do so well in workforce competencies and qualifications: the research showed that most Armenians are employed in primary occupations that require only the basic skills. Armenian employers, on the other hand, express concern about the state of the nation’s education system, teaching quality and the poor level of knowledge and competencies demonstrated by today’s college graduates. Of particular concern to employers are new graduates’ poor aptitude for independent analysis and problem-solving, their inadequate communication skills, insufficient IT literacy, and a few other complaints.
Armenia has completed a series of education reforms in the past few years, but those mainly targeted public institutions. Buildings were renovated, teaching resources and learning aids replenished, and steps were taken to upgrade the teaching quality and training level, and to streamline and update institutional management. Those improvements were regulated by the following strategic and conceptual guidelines: "Strategy for Primary and Secondary Vocational Education and Training in the Republic of Armenia” (2004); "Concept for Higher and Postgraduate Education” (2004); "Education Concept and Strategy for Adults” (2005); "Extramural Education Concept for the Republic of Armenia” (2008); "Sustainable Development Program” (2008); "Development Concept for Primary and Secondary Vocational Education” (2008); "Social Partnership Concept for Primary and Secondary Vocational Education” (2009). The improvements in the national education system were funded by both the Armenian government and international donors.
One way or another, each of the instruments listed above addresses the concept of continued education in Armenia. One of the strategy objectives for primary and secondary vocational training is defined the following way: "Lifelong education involves the improvement or rejuvenation of any knowledge and skills that employees are expected to possess in order to keep their job, and job seekers are expected to possess to qualify for employment. It is essential that citizens enjoy the opportunity to learn throughout their lifetime when they so desire and/or when the marketplace
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behooves them to do so.” And yet none of those legal instruments or strategy guidelines fully define or expressly name any national policy steps that are needed to organize and implement lifelong education in Armenia.
The abovementioned policy instruments were followed by the establishment of a number of new institutions within the education system, notably, the National Center for the Promotion of Vocational Education and Training (2008) and National Vocational Training Quality Assurance Center (2008). Overall, the framework was now complete for the Concept Guidelines of Lifelong Education for the Republic of Armenia (“Guidelines”), ratified by the Armenian government on 15 October 2009. The Guidelines define continued or lifelong education as “the sum total of all educational activity undertaken by a person during his/her lifetime with the aim of improving their knowledge, skills or competencies, whether personal, civil or social, or improving the knowledge and skills associated with better employment prospects,” which is basically in tune with the internationally accepted definition. The Guidelines also define the principles, functions and structure of lifelong education, set the key objectives and map out the ways to achieve them.
Armenia’s lifelong education is at the moment a formal system comprised of required and optional general and vocational curricula, administered in keeping with the following ordinances: “On Preschool Education” (2005), “On General Education” (2009), “On Primary and Secondary Vocational Education” (2005), “On Higher and Postgraduate Vocational Education” (2004). All of those statutes derive from the 1999 Education Act of the Republic of Armenia. In Armenia, educational regulations are also closely linked to a number of other applicable laws, in particular, the 1994 Language Act, 2001 Public Environmental Education and Awareness-Raising Act, 2001 Licensing Act, 2001 Governmental Not-for-Profit Organizations Act, and 2005 Social Welfare for Orphaned Children Act.
One of the core components of lifelong education in Armenia is noninstitutional (or extramural) education, which comes in many forms: (а) vocational education/re-skilling for the unemployed (regulated by the Employment and Welfare for the Unemployed Act of Armenia); (b) retraining courses for secondary and vocational school teachers; (c) corporate staff retraining courses administered by employers internally; (d) training courses administered by governmental and non-government organizations for citizens wishing to learn new skills and willing to pay for it; (e) purpose-specific training administered by various international
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organizations, including charities; and (f) all kinds of prep courses and private tutoring.
With the exception of teachers and the unemployed, no statistical records are kept in Armenia for people enrolled in those training formats, but unofficial estimates put their number in a high five-figure range. In the meantime, this area of the education system is not regulated by any laws in Armenia.
Another component of lifelong education is informal, or self-teaching. When we speak about the lifelong education system in Armenia, we refer to all of its existing training formats: institutional, non-institutional and informal, as administered by all kinds of organizations and private tutors. Noninstitutional and informal training are the lesser regulated areas of lifelong education. To any practical intents and purposes, there is no government policy to assess whether those training formats are productive or successful.
Armenia’s lifelong education system faces a range of challenges occasioned mainly by the following factors: (a) fast changes in science and technology, (b) lack of information about the current state of the country’s labor market and its forecasted needs going forward, (c) not all the conditions are in place for the advancement of lifelong education: the legal framework, infrastructure, professional and methodological support networks all leave much to be desired, and there is no sufficient attention from the government or society, (d) the non-institutional training system is yet to find its final shape, (e) the education system is not flexible enough overall, (f) there is no uniform system to evaluate the knowledge and skills learned through non-institutional or informal training, (g) insufficient funding, and the funds that are available are not always used the best way, (h) the public is not prepared psychologically or sufficiently aware of what lifelong education is all about, (i) there is no policy and no work is being done to raise public awareness of what lifelong education is about.
The principal impediments to the advancement of lifelong education in Armenia are, therefore: (1) inadequate administration of lifelong education formats, (2) lack of funding for lifelong education, (3) a weak support network for lifelong education, (4) no statistics on lifelong education, (5) excessive centralization of the education system, (6) insufficient international cooperation, and so on. These problems can be addressed by means of (1) stepped-up government support for education, (2) gradual devolution of the education system and decrease in direct government interference,
(3) local, regional and institutional self-governance in lifelong education,
(4) advancement of social partnership, greater involvement of citizens and non-government associations in decision-making on lifelong education,
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(5) keeping track of the lifelong education system and building a national database, (6) a radical increase in funding for lifelong education, (7) design and enforcement of national qualification benchmarks and a system to attest, recognize and certify the results of earlier education (all kinds of training), and formation of a network of appropriate institutions, (8) joining all kinds of international programs and networks, broader partnership ties with the appropriate institutions, (9) design and enforcement of new standards for statistics gathering, monitoring and evaluation,
(10) improvements to the legal framework for lifelong education,
(11) gearing the learning process so as to inspire and drive personal growth and fulfillment, (12) support for all formats of educational activity, (13) recognition of previously received education, (14) gradual implementation of a lending system in vocational education and training, (15) continuous study of international expertise and best practice in the administration and delivery of lifelong education.
We believe that if the steps listed above are taken and the associated challenges tackled, the Republic of Armenia will eventually nurture a flexible system of lifelong education that will be available to everyone and transparent to the international community.
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