Armenia's education in crisis: Here's why Zhanna Andreasyan must resign

By Anahit Voskanyan 

If there are any moral standards left, especially in education, where the well-being of children should be paramount, Armenia's Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan must resign.

The Mkhchyan School Incident

Tenth-grade students tied up two fourth-graders in the school toilet, smeared a white powder—allegedly a drug—on their mouths so the children would crave more, steal money from home and support the older students’ “business". What kind of deranged mind devises such a plan?

Incidentally, some members of the public, detaching this incident from the earlier one in the village of Merdzavan, excused the Mkhchyan horror as mere “childish mischief". 

Mischiefs are what kids do when they catch snakes in the spring to scare the girls they like. What happened in Mkhchyan is not mischief. Even if the substance wasn't an actual narcotic, the possibility alone is horrifying. The victims—just ten years old—were left terrified, even possibly traumatized. Imagine being tied up, helpless, subjected to something that leads you down a path to theft, deceit, addiction and illness.

These children would need proper psychological care in a normal environment.

How deeply irresponsible, unaccountable and misanthropic must an environment be for children to even conceive of doing something like this.

The Merdzavan School Incident

At first, the public was "shocked" by circulating videos showing students speaking harshly to a teacher. Some posted romanticized tributes to the teaching profession or lamented the “degeneration” of today’s youth as if they themselves had been ideal students back in their school days.

Those doing the finger-wagging mostly live in cities of thousands or millions. But the students in the video live in a village. They speak casually as villagers do. Who knows, perhaps the teacher in question is an extended family member to some.

In the footage I saw, a student was visibly distressed, sweating, flushed, clearly in emotional turmoil. And the teacher? According to reports, she acted out a humiliating scenario where he said not to have money in her wallet, chewed food and rubbed her belly in front of students.

Those defending such a teacher, who dehumanizes students and exposes them to her personal life, should ask themselves whether they’re truly paying attention to their own children. Their kids might have similar teachers but be afraid to speak up about it. Or they simply don't care who teaches their children and how.

Let me be absolutely clear: I am not condoning verbal abuse or disrespect towards teachers. But serious incidents require serious understanding. Otherwise, today’s child will speak disrespectfully and so will tomorrow’s—maybe even yours. Or you yourself.

Chaotic Strategy

As if the learning environment wasn’t already child-unfriendly enough, Minister Andreasyan has introduced another layer of chaos.

Under new regulations starting from the 2025–2026 academic year, children who begin school late may be placed directly into their age-appropriate grade if they turn 7 or 8 by December 31 of that year.

In practice, this means a child with a one- or two-year learning gap will be dropped into a classroom with peers far ahead academically. If a teacher gives this child the extra attention they need, the rest of the class suffers. In already heterogeneous classrooms filled with students of varying skill levels, teachers are often forced to focus on the average student, leaving both high achievers and struggling learners behind.

Now imagine adding children who dropped out for months or years due to poverty, who return with zero foundational knowledge and are placed with age-peers instead of skill-peers. What kind of psychological environment does this create?

Frustration, failure and trauma. These are not even the students with diagnosed learning difficulties who require specialized pedagogical-psychological services under support levels 3 and 4. We are talking about kids whose only barrier was poverty, whose parents couldn’t afford clothes or shoes.

Even for those who do have serious educational support needs, the ministry’s “solution” is to place them one grade below their age group. It’s tragically absurd.

The person responsible for all this chaos would have resigned immediately if she truly understood the consequences of her actions and if the government had not approved this anti-child strategy.

Read the original article in Armenian here.