Teach For All international network will hold its annual conference on October 20-23 in Yerevan. 

The three-day conference will gather 450 experts for the discussion titled “How can we prepare students to shape a changing world?”.

Ahead of the event, Mediamax has talked with founder and CEO of Teach For Armenia educational foundation Larisa Hovannisian.

Tell us, please, about the conference scheduled in October. Who are the participants? What’s their number and what countries do they represent?

Teach for Armenia foundation is a member of the Teach for All global network. Held annually, the Teach for All Global Conference assembles all member organizations of the network, network partners, international experts, supporters, representatives of partnering communities and, indeed, local and foreign students to listen and learn from each other, discuss current issues in the domain of educational enhancement, while also delving into the local context of the host country. The recent years’ conferences have been convened in the US, New Zealand, Great Britain, Chile. It was our immense delight to have Armenia selected as this year’s host country.

The conference will be held on October 21-23, 2019, in the capital city of Yerevan. Over 450 guests are expected to arrive from around 75 countries across the world. The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan will honor the opening ceremony of the conference with a welcome speech on October 21. Distinguished delegates, such as Princess Tatjana of Liechtenstein, Peter Tabichi, the 2019 Global Teacher Prize Winner from Kenya and Harry Patrinos, Director of Education for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the World Bank, have confirmed their participation in the Conference. 

What are some of the central themes of the Conference?

The key subjects of this year’s conference will be the paths of preparing students to shaping the changing world and exploring what methods and educational instruments need to be applied to give students the right knowledge and skills that would enable them to challenge the existing global problems in the future, as well as have the self-efficacy of making meaningful decisions and finding solutions to make tomorrow’s world a better place.

The three-day learning journey of the Conference will include workshops and discussions involving both Teach for All global network partners and external specialists and diverse professional groups. During this experience, the participants will acquaint themselves with the history and culture of Armenia, the perspectives on the leadership development in the country, and, obviously, get a better understanding of the local challenges in education, the roadmaps for progress and potential channels to future developments. The scope of the Conference also includes visits to the placement communities of Teach for Armenia Teacher-Leaders. This will enable our guests to have a close-up of the community lifestyles, as well as to explore the local communities’ attempts to address existing issues and challenges. These visits provide wonderful opportunities for our guests to have a clearer view of the situation and development prospects of the communities.

How did Armenia achieve to be selected as the hosting country of the conference?

It’s been 5 years now that Teach for Armenia strives to provide opportunities of modern and excellent school education to all children of Armenia, regardless of their socio-economic background and location.

Larisa Hovannisian

Photo: Mediamax

Throughout this short period of existence and owing to its efforts, accomplishments and the visible transformations, Teach for Armenia has been acknowledged as a reliable partner, enjoying Teach for All global network’s recognition as a successful and promising member organization. So, in order to raise the awareness about Armenia and reinforce and develop our relations with Teach for All global network, we decided to apply for hosting this year’s Global Conference in Armenia. We are highly honored to have been selected from among so many countries to host this event. It is also Teach for Armenia’s special pride to be dignified in such a way as an acknowledgement for its daily work and commitment. We are now actively making all preparations to ensure a brilliant profile of Armenia at the conference, as well as to showcase the great potential and opportunities that such a small country possesses. This is our chance to tell the world about our educational system and its significant transformations, and to develop a vision of the routes we still need to take to be really able to ensure access to quality education for every child in Armenia.

How will Teach for Armenia benefit from hosting the conference in Armenia?

This is going to be the largest educational conference ever organized in Armenia and it is a great opportunity for us to display our human resources and educational potential, as well as the huge capacity for implementation of community development programs, despite the small geographical dimensions of Armenia. This Conference is expected to make Armenia’s profile and its ongoing educational reforms more accessible and recognizable to larger audiences. The name of our country will have its place among such giants in education as Argentina, Great Britain or Sweden. This is a wonderful opportunity to improve Armenia’s worldwide positioning in the domain of education and for attracting the attention of many organizations and investors across the world to run more extensive and significant educational or development programs in our country.