12:47,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. After more than two weeks of search operations, rescuers say they have found the body of one of the fishermen who went missing in Lake Sevan on May 6.
The body of the 54-year-old victim was found in the waters near the coast of Tsovinar village.
13:00,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. 22 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one week, the ministry of health said.
The total number of confirmed cases has reached 422,939.
11,121 tests were conducted within a week.
One patient has died from the disease. The death toll has risen to 8624.
The number of recoveries rose by 150, bringing the total to 412,221.
The number of active cases is 388.
14:12,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved today a $25 million loan for Additional Financing of the Education Improvement Project (EIP) in Armenia, the World Bank said in a press release.
The project will further assist the Government in improving school readiness of children entering primary education, the physical condition and availability of educational resources in general education, and quality and relevance in higher education institutions in Armenia.
Quality of education is a key challenge causing a mismatch between the formal qualifications of graduates and the skills sought by employers, therefore slowing overall productivity, and hampering economic growth in Armenia. The project, which spans three education levels, will help strengthen the education trajectory and the human capital of Armenian children and is aligned with mid- to long-term government and sectoral strategies.
“Establishing an equitable and high-quality education system is key not only for growth but also in providing hope for a brighter future for the youth of Armenia,” says Carolin Geginat, World Bank Country Manager for Armenia. “With this project, the Government aims to improve the relevance and quality of, and access to, educational services at all levels, including in the early years of a child and for higher education. The project contributes in important ways to strengthening Armenia’s human capital and to enhancing the competitiveness of the economy.”
The project has two main components. The first component will focus on enhancing the quality of general education by financing 80 additional community-based preschools in early education for children aged four to six, as well as the training of teachers and principals assigned to new preschools. Four upper secondary schools that are in poor seismic condition and located in areas of climate risk will be rehabilitated and refurbished.
Furthermore, under this component, data-driven evidence-based policy making for improving managing, teaching, and learning will be promoted. 200 school laboratories in general education will be equipped and furnished and will be provided with resources to help teachers deliver a project-based learning approach in the context of the revised science, technology, engineering, and mathematics STEM curriculum.
The second component will finance higher education institution (HEI) projects to improve labor market relevance, organizational efficiency, and equity in enrollment and other opportunities. A call for proposals under the Competitive Innovations Fund (CIF) will welcome projects that aim to develop innovative approaches to strengthen STEM education in both universities and basic education.
“This project will incentivize HEIs to attract more female students into STEM fields of study and jobs, and have more female teaching staff working in programs,” says Renata Freitas Lemos, World Bank Task Team Leader of the project. “Frequent community roundtables with teachers, parents, and students at any stage of the proposed activities will improve citizen engagement and participatory monitoring of education outcomes.”
The original EIP project has delivered strong results to date. 136 preschools have been established and around 3,500 five- and six-year-old children have been enrolled across the country. 13 schools have been fully rehabilitated and refurbished, while 107 high schools have been equipped with laboratory equipment and furniture for STEM subjects along with E-learning materials.
An education management information system (EMIS) which captures the developments at all levels, has been established and is fully operational and expanded nationwide. 4,475 teachers and administrative staff have been trained in information and communication technologies usage. Grants for 18 research projects were awarded to 15 universities across Armenia.
The World Bank will provide a $25 million IBRD loan of variable-spread, with a 14.5-year grace period and a total repayment term of 25 years. The Government contribution is $6.25 million. Since joining the World Bank in 1992, and IDA in 1993, commitments to Armenia have totaled approximately $2,502,870 million.
14:22,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message on the occasion of the 75th birthday of composer, Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia Aram Satyan, the PM’s Office said.
The message, in particular, states:
“Dear maestro,
I cordially congratulate you on your 75th birthday.
You are one of the great figures of contemporary Armenian composing art, an artist endowed with a great ability to create, a master of art, whose life and creative activity are one of the brilliant manifestations of unwavering devotion to the Armenian music.
Through creative, social and pedagogical activities, you have been enjoying the love and respect of the music community for decades.
Your contribution to the development of music is significant, while the programs implemented by the Composers’ Union of Armenia are a new impetus for our cultural life.
I wish you good health, happiness and new creative achievements”.
Armenian Deputy PM, Personal Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office discuss regional unblocking
15:30,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan received today Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the deputy PM’s Office said.
The regional developments and the ongoing works on the transportation unblocking were discussed.
The comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was also touched upon. In this context the deputy PM highlighted the continuous role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.
15:44,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. On May 21, 2022 in the frame of the project “The story of an exhibit” the visitors of the first memorial musical museum of Armenia were represented two unique exhibits: the model of the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese residence with the audio guide in three languages and the Manifesto of the Emperor Alexander II with a video entitled “Spendiarovs – hereditary honorary citizens of the Russian Empire” in two languages.
Following the tradition of the Museum Night, the visitors tasted the “Cocoa according the recipe of Spendiaryan.”
In the frame of the all European event the second project of the House-museum was the “Meeting at the balcony of the composer.” The guests of the project were the pianist, RA Honored artist Hayk Melikyan and producer Alexander Plato Hakobyan. They shared their experience and career advices with the young musicians – scholarship recipients of the “Music For the Future Foundation” in the warm and friendly atmosphere.
Every year an evening open-air concert takes place at the Alexander Spendiaryan House-museum yard in the frame of the “European Night of Museums.” This year was no exception.
The participants of the event were the vocal soloists and folk ensembles – the students of the Yerevan Music School named after M. Mirzoyan, State Musical Pedagogical College after A. Babajanyan, State College of Culture and Arts named after C. Aznavour and Komitas State Conservatory Chair of Jazz/Pop music. The concert was dedicated to the 120th birth anniversary of Artemi Ayvazyan – the founder of the Armenian Jazz music and the student of Alexander Spendiaryan. The program included Armenian folk music and favorite Jazz-pop compositions by the Armenian composers. During the concert the directors of the House-museum and the College of Culture – Marine Otaryan and Vrej Kirakosyan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation between the two institutions.
16:22,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. As part of a charity program developed by the Zinvori Tun (Soldier’s Home) Rehabilitation Center of Armenia and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, a group of ex-servicemen who sustained disabilities in the 2020 Artsakh War will travel to Jerusalem for holidays.
The first group of former servicemen will depart to Israel on May 26. They will be accompanied by Members of Parliament Narek Zeynalyan and Lusine Badalyan from Civil Contract Party.
In Israel, the former servicemen will be hosted by the Armenian Ambassador Arman Hakobyan and will participate in a number of events.
“This, by its nature, is a pilgrimage,” said Andranik Kocharyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and Security Affairs.
16:45,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. The Embassy of China to Armenia is starting a new project aimed at contributing to the development and progress of provinces in education, tourism, trade and business sectors. The new project will start from Aragatsotn province.
Ambassador of China to Armenia Fan Yong said that they want to cooperate with all provinces of Armenia.
“I came to Armenia in November 2020. Due to the pandemic I didn’t manage to visit Armenia’s provinces, and this project is a wonderful opportunity to fill this gap. We started the project from Aragatsotn province and will continue developing the relations with the other provinces as well. We also want to present China more to the Armenian people, by translating books and implementing several events so that the Armenian people recognize and show more interest to China. We plan to talk to the Confucius Institute, present our today’s visit in N1 Basic School of Ashtarak so that they could cooperate and develop the field of education in Aragatsotn province”, the Ambassador said.
He noted that they also plan to develop tourism within the frames of the partnership with Armenia’s provinces, adding that they will try to do so that Chinese people better recognize Armenia.
“During our meeting today we discussed what goods exist in Aragatsotn province which the Chinese people would be interested in and what products could be exported to China”, the Ambassador said.
Governor of Aragatsotn province Sergey Movsisyan said the cooperation proposal has been made by the Embassy of China, which was accepted with pleasure.
“Our meeting today was very productive, and I hope that it will put a beginning to our cooperation in a number of areas. We discussed different topics with the Ambassador on starting cooperation both in education, culture and business sectors. We agreed to again meet and more substantively discuss in what format to introduce the teaching of Chinese in our schools, as well as we plan to hold China Days in Aragatsotn province. We also reached an agreement on the cooperation in the business field”, the Governor said.
Sergey Movsisyan said that during the meeting it was revealed that the Ambassador was very much interested in winemaking, and the province, he says, is very developed in this field as there are many entities engaged in wine production. “I think that at our next meeting we will much deeply discuss the issue of winemaking, which the Ambassador is interested in, and which is a very priority sector for us”, the Governor of Aragatsotn province said.
16:53,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. As more cases of the rare monkeypox virus have been reported worldwide, Armenian health officials have ordered hospitals to be on high alert regarding patients who would display any symptoms characteristic to the disease.
As of the latest data, no suspected cases of the monkeypox virus were reported in Armenia.
Lusine Paronyan, the Head of the Department of Epidemiology of Zoonotic Diseases at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a press conference that scientists believe the monkeypox virus doesn’t have the potential to cause a pandemic.
The NCDC is working with hospitals across the country to rapidly discover any possible case.
Meanwhile, the NCDC is also working with the Food Safety Inspection Agency, who is carrying out monitoring at border crossing points to ban the import of exotic rodents and monkeys.
European and American health authorities have identified a number of monkeypox cases in recent days, mostly in young men. It’s a surprising outbreak of a disease that rarely appears outside Africa, according to AP.
Health officials around the world are keeping watch for more cases because, for the first time, the disease appears to be spreading among people who didn’t travel to Africa.
The incubation period (interval from infection to onset of symptoms) of monkeypox is usually from 6 to 13 days but can range from 5 to 21 days. Monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting from 2 to 4 weeks. Severe cases occur more commonly among children and are related to the extent of virus exposure, patient health status and nature of complications
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms very similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe, according to .
16:58,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. On the sidelines of the International Migration Review Forum in New York, the Head of the Migration Service of Armenia Armen Ghazaryan had bilateral meetings with the delegation of Denmark in the face of Hanne Stig Andersen, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Immigration and Integration, Joost Klarenbeek, Special Envoy for Migration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Jenny Ohlsson, the State Secretary to Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden, the Migration Service of Armenia said in a news release.
Armen Ghazaryan discussed with the sides both the current and possible cooperation issues, the readmission processes, presented the asylum system in Armenia, particularly the construction of a new special shelter for asylum seekers. The partners considered the opportunity of expanding the framework of the activity in Armenia.
Ghazaryan highlighted the digitization of processes as the Armenian government’s priority in the field of migration management.
Armen Ghazaryan and international partners agreed also over the exchange of experience in the future.