On April 9, the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport held a distance discussion on the theme The Challenges and Opportunities of Distance Education in the Conditions of State of Emergency. The RA NA deputies, those responsible in the executive body, directors of schools, teachers, specialists of media sphere and representatives of the international organizations took part in the discussion.

The Deputy Chair of the Committee Hovhannes Hovhannisyan initiated the distance discussion and moderated it. He particularly thanked the pedagogues for their efforts of teaching the children in this difficult situation. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan has highlighted the distance teaching in the sphere of education, noting that today there are no efficiency assessment mechanisms.

Welcoming the participants the Committee Chair Mkhitar Hayrapetyan thanked them for taking part in the discussion being held in this format.

Touching upon the implementation of the distance education, he has also expressed his gratitude to the teachers, who continue fulfilling their mission in the conditions of state of emergency. The Committee Chair underlined that after the establishing of the state of emergency in Armenia a necessity occurred to provide the continuity of education, particularly the general education, to which the education sphere of Armenia was not ready. Therefore, according to him, today it is urgent to give systemized solutions to the distance education, particularly observe analyzing the problems and challenges of the sphere.

According to him, it is necessary to find answers to two questions: What are the problems in organizing distance education and how is it possible to find their solutions in very short term? It is also necessary to answer the question: how will be the role and significance of the distance education after the end of the state of emergency, particularly in the life of the pupils in the senior schools. In his opinion, these items are important, as in the future also, after overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic there will be need to some extent for continuing the format of the distance education.

The RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan also referred to the issue under discussion. According to her, there have been made attempts of distance teaching before this situation, but the created circumstance forced to immediately turn to the format of distance education. It has been noted that the Ministry studies the experience and guidelines of other countries, cooperated with the concerned organizations to effectively implement the distance education. She has noted that today there is need of technical equipment and internet communication, and debates are going on for obtaining them.

The Ministry also initiated the teachers’ methodological assistance course, the hotline of the Ministry and computerized service hotline function.

The Ministry gets information that not only the pupils, but also many other citizens follow the video lessons, which is a positive tendency.

The Director of the National Center for Educational Technologies (NCET) Artak Poghosyan related to the questions of the teachers and the parents, noting that the Center launched a pilot program several years ago in a number of villages, where there were no teachers for some subjects.

He advised the teachers to organize the lesson process weekly, also using the telephone communication.

He clarified that the teachers can do thematic works in written form and give marks to the pupils.

The RA NA deputy Sofia Hovsepyan has spoken about the problems of the children with the need of inclusive education, noting that most of them remain out of the educational process. The MP has also noticed that not all teachers are involved in the distance education process.

To the observation of the Director of School N 198 Artashes Torosyan, many teachers, as well as pupils cannot implement the lesson process in the network, and one of the reasons is the lack of the computers. According to her, the opinion is false and wrong that the children have good command at information technologies, and that they are media literate. According to him, neither ZOOM, not other using apps are not effective for distance teaching.

To the observation of some participants of the discussion, there are no efficient resources of risk management in the sphere of education, and the crisis conditioned by the pandemic showed the poorness of the system. The parent, mathematician Emma Kirakosyan referred to the numerous problems existing in the sphere, the teachers' loading by work, noting that giving marks shall not be compulsory in these days, where there is not necessary toolset for distance education. In this situation, the public should be given psychological support, but not be subjected to pressures, she noticed.

Other participants of the discussion related to the importance getting along with the times, considered necessary the urgency of revising state policy for implementing distance education and fundamentally reviewing the sphere. According to the speakers, it is necessary to direct the teachers with right and efficient teaching methodology, and give media literacy knowledge to them and the pupils.

In the opinion of most of the speakers, today the world changes, in many companies the work becomes distant, and we should be ready to face those challenges.

In her final speech, the RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan touched upon the raised issues, noting that the distance education made them more visible. She assessed effective the conducting of the discussion and noted that the Ministry would refer to the raised issues.

Summing up the debates the Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Mkhitar Hayrapetyan qualified them useful and constructive. He assured that such debates would be continuous. The Committee Chair has also mentioned the raised questions and has agreed that there is a lot to do in the sphere, and particularly the teaching methodology is necessary to review, make less the homework, increase the media literacy for the teachers and pupils, etc. According to Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, it is necessary what is to be done for getting out of this situation with honour and that we should observe this situation as an opportunity. He proposed to continue the joint work and give an opportunity to the executive body to more effectively fulfill its mission.