YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Deputy Minister of Education and Science Aida Topuzian told reporters that beginning in the 2001-2002 school-year–an 11-year education system will be introduced in Armenia–and the school week will be 5 days. The goal of the introduction of the new system is to raise the efficiency of the education system and to be integrated into the international community.
Topuzian said that the new system will apply to children who are going to school this year. Elementary school will be from 1st to 3rd grades–middle school will be from 4th to 9th grades–and high school from 10th to 11th grades. She also said that major changes will take place in the middle and high schools. She pointed out that the number of new students has increased by nearly 10,000 as compared to last year (50,000-60,000 respectively). Topuzian ascribed this increase to the age factor. With 37 new text-books already published this year–pupils still don’t have a book dealing with information science–because the administration has not included it in the list of necessary school text-books. New students are provided with books free of charge and in 2003 all elementary school pupils will use books free of charge.