According to Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan, the scores for the joint Armenian language and literature exams will possibly be raised by a maximum of 1 point instead of 3.

This was what the Minister said at the opening of the three-day conference of the European association on education of the elderly people and the international conference “Professional education and education for the elderly and the youth” with the participation of 150 professionals from Armenia and abroad.

The slogan “Learn today to create tomorrow” brought nearly 80 foreigners from Europe and 26 CIS countries to Armenia. “It is hard to underestimate the importance of education of the elderly due to the fact that the issue of having qualified professionals is for formal education, as well as non-formal education and education for the elderly. That is the only way of confronting the challenges of the 21st century,” said the Minister of Education and Science.

According to Armen Ashotyan, the conviction that the day that you haven’t acquired anything is lost is more current today than ever. “For many years, there was no legal field for education for the elderly in Armenia and the completed activities were mainly the initiatives of non-governmental organizations. But last year, the Armenian government adopted the “RA Concept on Lifelong Learning” and a separate department for additional and ongoing education will begin its activities at the Ministry this year,” said the Minister.

Education for the elderly is very popular in European countries where new professions and the need for new knowledge emerge year after year. However, Armenians seem to be more conservative toward this issue, though, for example, there is no age limit at Yerevan State University and anyone with the corresponding documents and the ability to cross the admissions exam threshold can study.

Our surveys among the elderly showed that they are not too motivated to receive more education.

“Why do I need to learn new things when I learn through practice?” said a 53-year old individual entrepreneur.

The elderly said they were passive due to lack of suitability in terms of tuition, admissions exams and more.

Juliet Arushanyan