The Number of Russian Schools in Armenia to More than Double

30 March 2023

“A project to build four Russian schools will be launched in Armenia,” Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Yuri Vorobyov said during his visit to Yerevan last week.

Now, on the basis of interstate agreements, three Russian schools are functioning: the main school No. 21 of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Yerevan, school No. 19 of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the city of Gyumri, where the 102nd Russian military base is deployed, and the secondary school of the border department of the FSB of Russia in the city of Artashat. The project to create new schools will also be carried out on the basis of interstate agreements, its implementation will be carried out within the work of the Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission.

The main problem in the implementation of the project is the format for creating Russian schools.  Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia Zhanna Andreasyan suggests 2 options for implementing this initiative. First, the Government of the Russian Federation should invest in the construction of schools, provide equipment for the educational institution, send specialists and provide additional financial assistance. The content of the curriculum will be developed jointly. The second option implies the opening of Russian schools by the Armenian side, relying on its own resources, so that the citizens of the Russian Federation who arrived in Armenia could receive education here. At the same time, the minister recalled that the current law on education provides education for Armenian citizens only in the Armenian language, if there are no exceptions provided by law.

Statistical data speaks of the need to open Russian schools: from February 2022 to March 1, 2023, 113,000 non-residents arrived in Armenia from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. This was announced on March 13 by the Minister of Economy of Armenia Vagan Kerobyan at a meeting of the parliamentary commission on regional and Eurasian integration.

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