Yerevan /Mediamax/. The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia has begun revising the national and per-subject curricula standards for the public education system.

The updated standards will be introduced for testing in one of the marzes in September of 2020.

The revision is conducted by local and international experts. The final document will establish the range of school subjects, system of evaluation, teaching methods, basic curriculum, and the knowledge and skills school graduates are expected to have.

The curriculum has been changed notably.

“We have substantially reduced the workload, especially for middle school students, and adapted the curriculum to the peculiarities of age groups. Previously, students would choose the natural sciences and mathematics group in high school and obtain more advanced knowledge in physics and mathematics, but children often wanted to study advanced subjects from other groups as well. The new curriculum is more flexible. Regardless of the group, students can choose two and more additional subjects,” expert Gagik Melikyan told the press.

The revision of standards is guided by development of abilities and skills of the pupils. The range of subjects will expand and include integrated subjects.

“The natural sciences group in high school will have humanitarian social studies. Students will learn through projects the materials that used to be taught within social studies, history and some other subjects. The humanities group will have the subject of natural sciences.

The experiments for sciences taught in the 7th-9th grades have been distributed between the natural sciences classes for the 5th and the 6th grades, according to the age groups, which will make studying science in higher grades easier for the students,” explained expert Artashes Torosyan.

Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arevik Anapiosyan has said that schools used to introduce new subjects for any innovation, but the approach has changed: now the topics will be included in one or several subjects.

“The topics in question include media literacy, sustainable development, democracy, critical thinking, and learning to learn. We try to teach them through all subjects. Our goal is not to increase the workload and the number of subjects, but to organize the learning process and discuss topics in an integrated format,” she said.

The ministry is cooperating with foreign partners in order to obtain financing for the most costly program, retraining for teachers. If it secures the required amount, the revised curricula standards will be introduced in all Armenian schools in 2023.