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On April 6, the RA NA Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs initiated a working discussion in conditions of coronavirus pandemic on the theme: The Psychological Impact of Distance Education on Younger Age Schoolchildren, Their Parents and Teachers. The representatives of the NGOs, education experts and the ones from other fields, psychologists, specialists for protection of human rights took part in the discussion.

The Committee Deputy Chair Ani Samsonyan noted that they received a lot of proposals from the pupils’ parents and teachers for discussing the issues referrring to distance education. The process was not effectively discussed during the pandemic, because it was in the stage of implementation Ani Samsonyan stated. She had added that the pandemic still continues, and there can be situations when it will be necessary to switch to distance learning again: “There is a need to discuss the recorded problems, challenges too and find their solutions.”

“The director of the Child Development Fund Lusine Simonyan and the project coordinator Armenuhi Burmanyan informed that a project with the heading The support of Civil Society to the Government in the Distance Education Processes was implemented by the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where experts, psychologists and other specialists took part. The aim of the project was to study the problems of distance education in a crisis situation and support the Government. Primary school teachers, pupils, psychologists and parents took part in the survey which was held in August-September. They expressed their opinions on distance education implemented in March-May. 366 teachers from the all regions of the republic answered the questionnaire. So, some problems were recorded during the implementation of distance learning. Numerous teachers, pupils and parents noted that they came across with various problems in the implementation of distance education and also had psychological, stress and alarm moments. Majority of teachers gave more time to classes and checking assignments. Part of the children was passive and they often were absent. The absence of the internet connection, digital devices or a poor quality were disputable. According to Armenuhi Burmanyan, 63% of elementary school teachers assessed the quality of online education ineffective, 18% - effective.

As the Head of the RA Education Inspectorate Alexander Shagafyan informed that during the pandemic about 80% of pupils received online education, the remaining part did not take part in classes, as they did not have either internet or corresponding equipment.

“In the implementation of online education the teaching methodology has been a problem, as the majority of teachers has continued to conduct the lesson in non-standard situation with existing teaching methods,” Alexander Shagafyan clarified. The inspectorate had a survey of the results for the works of 500 pupils studying in 11 educational institutions done on the subject of Mathematics in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 educational years. The received picture is more than concerning: according to the results of 2019-2020 the 62% of the pupils has got unsatisfactory marks. More than half of the pupils who has got unsatisfactory marks are 11-year students. Such index is also conditioned by insufficiency of online education organization.

The participants of the discussion highlighted the teachers’ training and the change of the teaching methodology in case of online teaching.

The Representative of the Human Rights Defender (HRD) informed that during the whole year the HRD carried out monitoring and recorded some problems. In the created situation the state has not been ready decently for the implementation of the distance education, moreover at the beginning situation has been chaotic. The educational institutions and the parents have not been ready. In its turn the office tried to support in order the child would not be deprived of the right to get education. The problem was topical during the whole year, and there was lack of awareness. Some pupils could not take part in classes, as they did not have digital equipment, many of them did not receive education, having need of special conditions of education.

Assessing positive the professional discussion, Ani Samsonyan expressed readiness for cooperating with the specialists of the sphere and supporting with legislative initiatives.