Month: October 2019

Armenia’s tertiary education system today is presented with an enormous opportunity to reform, said in a World Bank SABER report on Armenian tertiary education. 

According to the report, “the Velvet Revolution has opened new avenues to change the higher education system and make it more effective. New boards of trustees in public universities have been formed, and there is hope that they will act as independent and competent authorities. There is a clear need to develop a strategic approach to tertiary education, adopt a new law on higher education, and improve the governance of the system.”

At the same time, as noted, universities in Armenia are continuing to face serious financial strain as a result of the decrease in student population during the last two years, and some private universities may not survive in this situation.

The authors of the report made some recommendations to improve the quality of education in Armenia:

– There is an urgent need to have a strategy for higher education and a new law on higher education in order to set the course toward a joint vision for the sector and the country as “the current law is outdated, since it was adopted in 2004  even before Armenia joined the Bologna Process.”

– The governance system needs to provide a level playing field between public, private, and cross-border institutions in terms of basic regulation.

–  To improve financial transparency, government should require all public universities to publicly report their financial data and should introduce performance-based funding, which could improve the overall quality of universities if performance were connected to relevant indicators, such as student graduation rates, student retention, postgraduate employment rates, and other criteria related to the college’s mission.

– While some financial aid programs are currently available for students, there is a need to make these policies more targeted and to expand need-based financial aid to cover living expenses.

– There is also a need to develop a student internal mobility system and to make learning paths more flexible.

Globally, PM Nikol Pashinyan’s authorities do not dare to open the Amulsar gold mine roads, as he knows perfectly well how he has dismantled the Police of Armenia. Political analyst Argishti Kiviryan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

He added as follows:

(…)  and in this case has no confidence that in the face of serious local resistance, the current power structures are able to do so with their preparedness. 

These are not the police of the time of [third president] Serzh [Sargsyan], who [the police], in case of a relative command, were able to neutralize the wave of protests against the authorities by force even until the last day before the change of power.

These are the police that were completely dismantled under Nikol’s rule, and that was precisely what [ex-Police chief] Valeriy Osipyan had said to these authorities directly before his resignation, who it’s not that he was not ready to carry out the operation, but only warned that even the current police might not be able to do so properly even in case of great wish.

Nikol managed to dismantle the power structures in a year and a half so that he is currently left unprotected globally. A fire properly organized from any spark is capable of collapsing not only the power structures, but also mechanically dismantling the current power amorphous and fluid pyramid.

At present, a well-organized force with far fewer supporters is capable of accomplishing much faster than what Nikol accomplished in April 2018.

Of course, theoretically Nikol will try to restore the police resources now, but that is not an effective management of the fake; it requires serious knowledge, team and will, which if had been, especially there was no meaning in dismantling the police. In the case of literate reforms it could have been transformed into a very exemplary and effectively working  structure, from which both the state and the people would have benefitted.

Today an unusual incident occurred in Kotayk Province of Armenia, SHAMSHYAN.com reports.

At 1:30pm, Police received information that an incident took place inside a casino in Tsakhkadzor, and which turned into a scuffle.

Police found that on the same day, at about 1pm, the said casino’s security chief, 35-year-old Garegin K., together with his ten employees, had argued about betting with Yerevan residents 38-year-old Babken A. and 46-year-old Mikael Sh., during which both were hit, causing injuries to Mikael Sh.

Police officers found both victims and Garegin K., who was also brought to a police station, he gave an account of what had occurred, and then was released.

Police are preparing a report, and trying to ascertain the identities of the other persons and are looking for them.

Mikael S. is the director of a private business in Yerevan.