On 30 July, the participants of the advanced and practical skills development phase of the training program for young professionals and the face-to-face phase of the budgetary training program for the representatives of the CSO/Mass Media launched within the “Budgets for Citizens” project visited the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports  where they met with Mr. Tigran Areyan, Deputy Secretary General and Ms Zara Margaryan, the Head of Financial and Economic Department of the Ministry. The visit was organized in the scope of the EU funded “Budgets for Citizens” Project, which includes the target sector Education as well.

The participants of the budget training program met with Ms Tamara Sargsyan, Head of the Department for General Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ms Tamara Gyozalyan, Head of the Division of Financing Education Programs, Ms Tamar Aleksanyan, Head of the Monitoring Division, Ms Siranush Eloyan, Head of the Division of Policy-Making and Strategy Development of Vocational Education and Training, Ms Alla Martirosyan, Chief Specialist of the Division of Vocational Education and Training, Ms Margarit Aslyan, Chief Specialist of the Division of Financing Education Programs.

At the beginning of the meeting, the representatives of the MESCS got acquainted with the young professionals and the representatives of the CSO/Mass Media, the activities carried out by each of them and were interested in their expectations from the meeting.

Then the representative of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, presented the main objective of the project, the actions and results achieved so far, the scope of the knowledge that the young professionals and representatives of CSOs and Mass Media received within the framework of the training as well as the expectations of the partners of Ministry regarding the involvement of the CSOs and Mass Media in the budgetary process.

Further the participants asked the questions of their concern regarding upcoming activities foreseen in the budget in the field of education, their priorities and cost-effectiveness. In particular, Elena Harutyunyan, a student of ASUE, a participant in the budget education program, was interested in whether there is a budget-specified threshold for discounting rents in higher educational institutions. Another participant of the budget training program, Director of the Tourism Skills Development Foundation, Gayane Serobyan, was interested in whether the budget envisages the provision of certain resources for dual education and how it is reflected in the budget. Anahit Kosakyan, a representative of the “Return to Kashatagh” NGO, wanted to know if the budget provides resources for the elimination of a number of technical problems hindering distance learning and the easier and more unobstructed implementation of distance education.

Referring to the questions raised, the colleagues of the Ministry answer positively, noting that the mechanisms aimed at improving the technical barriers of both dual education and distance learning are being discussed by the Ministry. Referring to the threshold of the number set by the budget for the discount of rents, the partner of the ministry briefly presented the regulations provided by the RA legislation and the regulations of the universities, emphasizing also the commitments undertaken by the universities in terms of providing free education.

The “Budgets 4 Citizens” (B4C) action (8 December, 2022 – 7 December, 2026) is being implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with partners “Economic Development and Research Center” (EDRC) NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic).